The new permanent exhibition of the Computerspielemuseum opened up to visitors on January 21st, 2011.
The museum is located in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Visitors are taken on a historical journey covering the highlights of a process that started 60 years ago. “The Computerspielemuseum is an asset to Berlin’s cultural landscape,” said the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, on the occasion of the opening. “I am happy to see that this young medium has at last found a suitable home here.”
Berlin, January 20th, 2011 – More than 60 years ago the computer became a gaming machine. Since then, digital games have contributed more to the diffusion of computers than any other application. The message of this new medium is interaction, suitable for daily use and creative possiblities, today already realised in global, interactive organised networks. In just a few years the digital game has changed the societal communication fundamentally – as printing and film have already done before. A long time misjudged as children‘s toy, computer and video games are increasingly at the focus of interest inside society.
The Computerspielemuseum Berlin goes along with this development since 13 years – informed, analysing, entertaining and inspiring. After 30 national and international exhibition projects the institution now has found a new permanent home in Berlin-Friedrichshain. “Our new permanent exhibition ‚Computerspiele. Evolution of a Medium‘ takes our visitors back to the beginning of this mass medium“, says director Andreas Lange. “In the new rooms, formerly the location of popular Café Warschau, we have created a 670 square metres gaming and experimental scenery. Our visitors can experience historical and future developments of computer and video games here. Our exhibition adresses a broad audience, young and old“.
Many rare original exhibits demonstrate the fusion of technology, human creativity and play in the context of history. Above that, we ask which consequences this digitization involves, on a societal and individual level. The exhibition shows games with their multifaceted relations with other types of media. Creations of many artists comment on the changing effect these new virtual realties have on our quotidian lives. One example is the PainStation, which once was part of our popular exhibition “pong.mythos“ and thereafter shown in MoMa, New York.
Home video game pioneer Ralph H. Baer, patron of the permanent exhibition, is very pleased with the new museum: “Videogames have become a major art form and as such have long been in need of a proper venue in Germany. Like all other art forms, videogame history and current progress needs a place where the public can become acquainted with both. The Computerspielemuseum is the prerfect place for both of these functions“. Baer, who was born in Germany in 1922 and had to emigrate together with his Jewish family in 1938, worked as a TV engineer in the USA. He is the holder of the first video game patent. As a result of his work, the first home video game console Odyssey was released in 1972. He received the National Medal of Technology – the highest American award for technological Innovation – in 2006.
The exhibition is divided into three parts: The first part prepares the visitor the journey into the world of the „Homo Ludens Digitalis“. The second part of the exhibition conveys the fusion of technology, human creativity and game culture in a historical context, displaying often rare original exhibits. The third part explores the ramifications of global digitalisation – both in relation to society as a whole and to the individual: Which characteristics and skills will be needed in the future? What opportunities and risks are associated with the establishment of virtual worlds? What developments can we expect?
Background:
Founded in 1997 in Berlin, the Computerspielemuseum was the world’s first permanent exhibition on digital interactive entertainment culture. Since then, it was responsible for over 30 national and international exhibitions, including “pong.mythos”, which, sponsored by the Federal Cultural Foundation, was Germany’s most successful touring exhibition on the history of computer and video games. In the last five years over 470.000 visitors have seen these temporary exhibitions. The museum has Europe’s largest collection of entertainment soft- and hardware. Together with three national libraries, it is a member of the European research project KEEP on the long-term preservation of our digital cultural heritage.
The concept development was supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. The installation of the exhibition is sponsored by the German Lottery Foundation Berlin and the European Union, European Regional Development Fund (Investing in Your Future).
Computerspielemuseum
Gameshouse gGmbH
Marchlewskistr. 27
10243 Berlin
Phone: +49-30-31164470
Fax: +49-30-2790126
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.computerspielemuseum.de