Games and Politics is an interactive exhibition by the Goethe-Institut, in cooperation with ZKM | Center for Art and Media, which has been touring worldwide. The exhibition features 18 significant politically-ambitious video games, and encourages viewers to examine how they each unfold their unique political potential.
The selected games cover a wide range of political and social topics. The political aspect of these games becomes visible to the players either directly as they make decisions affecting social groups and economies to win elections (Democracy 3), or indirectly as they witness social injustices such as precarious labour conditions (Sunset), the treatment of refugees (Escape from Woomera) and address gender issues (Perfect Woman). The games also lead the players to confrontations with the surveillance state (Touchtone) and the consequences of armed conflicts (This War of Mine). Adopting the characters of often-marginalized people, players experience limited possibilities and negative sanctions through both the characters and the game play.
Visitors can also view an introductory film about political games and short documentaries about some of the games. The accompanying exhibition catalogue provides background information on the unifying concepts of these independent games.
During the exhibition period several programmes are going to be implemented: Live Playthroughs, Public Lecture, Documentaries, Workshop and Panel Discussion. The particular times and dates will be announced on individual Facebook events https://www.facebook.com/goetheinstitut.malaysia/ and on our website https://www.goethe.de/ins/my/en/ver.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&event_id=21258772
FEATURED GAMES
-1378(km) (Jens M. Stober, 2010)
-Coming Out Simulator 2014 (Nicky Case, 2014)
-Democracy 3 (Positech Games, 2013)
-Dys4ia (Newgrounds, Anna Anthropy, 2012)
-Escape from Woomera (Katharine Neil, et.al., 2004)
-Killbox (Biome Collective, 2016)
-Madrid (Gonzalo Frasca, 2004)
-Orwell (Osmotic, 2016)
-Papers, Please (3909, Lucas Pope, 2013)
-Perfect Woman (Peter Lu & Lea Schönfelder, 2016)
-Phone Story (Molleindustria, 2011)
-Sunset (Tale of Tales, 2015)
-The Cat and the Coup (Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad, 2011)
-The Westport Independent (Double Zero One Zero, 2016)
-This War Of Mine (11 bit studios, 2014)
-TouchTone (Mikengreg, 2015)
-Unmanned (Mollenindustria, 2012)
-Yellow Umbrella (Awesapp, 2014)
Mature themes are addressed in the exhibition.
The exhibition is presented in Kuala Lumpur by the Goethe-Institut Malaysia and Lostgens’ Contemporary Art Space.
The exhibition is free of admission.
http://lostgenerationspace.blogspot.my/
www.goethe.de/malaysia
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