The Infusion of Virtuality and Reality: Video Games in Exhibition Space and the Flow of Power

This research examines video games in exhibition spaces as ecosystems of human and non-human actors, focusing on how agency and power circulate among institutions, artists, audiences, and machines. Its central argument is that game-based exhibitions destabilize traditional curatorial hierarchies by redistributing agency across these actors, producing both tensions and new possibilities for exhibition practice in technologically mediated contexts. The study is framed through the author's first-person experience as a researcher and practitioner, which is treated as a test of their own agency within the ecosystem and as a reflection of other actors' intentions.

The analysis rests on three case studies, each representing a different curatorial approach. The first is the Berlin Computerspielemuseum, a museum dedicated to the culture and history of video games, examined for how it places games within exhibition space. The second is Munch Arcade, a collaborative game created in reference to an original artwork and designed for an inclusive space at the Munch Museum in Oslo, used to trace dynamic changes across the museum as a whole. The third is Third World: The Bottom Dimension by Brazilian digital artist Gabriel Massan, exhibited at the Serpentine Galleries in London, which engages decolonial narration and exposes the collaboration challenges between traditional art institutions and game artists. The method is qualitative and case-based, building the ecosystem from backstage production through curation to exhibition, and tracing the flow of agency among its participants.

The findings indicate that the inclusion of games and machines makes the power dynamics of exhibition spaces more complicated and less stable. Games attract more diverse visitor types, grant audiences greater agency, and reveal the growing importance of technological labour and machine maintenance as non-human participants that are often overlooked as mere tools. Artists retain substantial creative control through game design, yet this control is negotiated against institutional frameworks and technical systems. The author concludes that this apparent chaos also pushes institutions, artists, and audiences to adapt and evolve in response to advanced technology.