Los Angeles, CA September 11, 2020- The A+D Architecture and Design Museum (“A+D Museum”) announced today it will be opening a new digital exhibition on Video Games entitled ‘Designing Worlds: Re-envisioning Realities through Video Games” on September 26, 2020. Designing Worlds, focuses on the ground-breaking work being done by emerging video game designers and artists as a means of tackling or escaping reality. With social distance increasing, forcing an adjustment in our social fabric, the exhibition makes a point of exploring how these games are designed or may be manipulated by their players to form new communities and worlds. The exhibit will be held at digitalaplusd.org the museum’s dedicated exhibition space.
Following an organization-wide restructure, this exhibition embraces the possibilities for museums presented by digital formats. Like video games, this exhibit is not experienced in physical space, but will exist as a digital extension of the A+D Museum website to be accessed by anyone at any time. Through the simplified online format, the exhibition becomes accessible to gamers looking to gain insight into the design of their favorite games, as well as to those non-gamers who want to understand the artistry and intrigue of gaming.
A+D Museum’s Executive Director, Anthony Morey, expressed enthusiasm for the exhibit:
“The role of video games has evolved. What began as a means of technological exploration and playful interaction has transformed into a medium of identity projection, world-building, and creative vitality. Video games combine a plethora of fields, disciplines, and approaches to produce a glimpse of a borderless field of creativity. We at the A+D Museum are excited to be highlighting the designers exploring this boundless field and making them accessible to the public.”
With topics ranging from tyrannical governments to the end of romantic entanglement, video game designers are using their ability to create whole worlds to work through and focus on issues they face in the physical realm. Gamifying these experiences often brings catharsis, through the development of digital worlds that allow for alternative outcomes and aesthetic modification. Companion virtual panels and programs over the life of the exhibit will provide insight into the design, intrigue, and psychological motivation of video games.
‘Designing Worlds’ will feature the works of video game artists such as 3-Fold Games, Clever Endeavour Games, Ghostbutter, ION LANDS, Kiana Mosser, Nuchallenger, pixelteriyaki, Plasticity Games, Playdead, Plethora Project, Quill Game Studios, Richard Hogg & Hollow Ponds, Terri Vellmann & Doseone, The Elsewhere Company, The Game Band, Those Awesome Guys, Tracy Fullerton and the Walden Team, ustwo games, and
many more. The exhibit will evolve, with the A+D Museum featuring rotating designers to
highlight over the course of the exhibition.
About Us
The A+D Museum explores the definitions of architecture and design, from the conceptual to professional practice. We embrace the themes of technology, art, scale, and urbanism. A+D guides our community through the complex effects design has on our lives and the world around us. We are a profoundly inclusive institution, embracing the intersections between architecture and design, and social and environmental justice.
In 2020 A+D Museum restructured the institution as a hybrid platform, both physical and digital, becoming more accessible and far-reaching than ever. Our interactive online presence gives us the opportunity to host programs across the globe. Through exhibits, symposia, multi-disciplinary projects, educational and community programming, A+D serves as a platform for contemporary issues in architecture and design that shape our built environment and our everyday experience.
The A+D Museum is a 501(c)3 Organization.