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Press Play to Start: The Challenges of Exhibiting Video Games at the Museum

Museums are increasingly grappling with how to exhibit video games as art, a shift that has accelerated since MoMA's 2012 acquisition of fourteen games for its Architecture and Design collection and the Smithsonian's The Art of Video Games that same year.

• Games resist conventional art presentation because their interactivity, dependence on evolving technology, and commercial origins do not fit the neutral 'white cube' gallery model, a tension framed through theorists Brian O'Doherty and Lev Manovich.
• Institutional recognition of games as art accelerated with MoMA's 2012 acquisition of fourteen games for its Architecture and Design collection and the Smithsonian's 2012 exhibition The Art of Video Games.
• Curators must 'translate' games' digital culture, community-based contexts, and interactive logic for diverse audiences, a framework associated with Domenico Quaranta, while funding pressures and audience appeal shape which titles are selected.