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MoMA's new videogame collection

David Pescovitz at 10:27 am Thu, Nov 29, 2012

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NewImageNew York's Museum of Modern Art has acquired 14 videogames that will be playable in a gallery there beginning in March 2013. According to Paola Antonelli, the MoMA's senior curator of architecture and design, these titles are "the seedbed for an initial wish list of about 40 to be acquired in the near future, as well as for a new category of artworks." I'm delighted that my favorite game, Pac-Man (1980), was part of the initial acquisition. The others include: Tetris (1984), Another World (1991), Myst (1993), SimCity 2000 (1994), vib-ribbon (1999), The Sims (2000), Katamari Damacy (2004), EVE Online (2003), Dwarf Fortress (2006), Portal (2007), flOw (2006), Passage (2008), and Canabalt (2009). "Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

    No pinball machines? Although I guess pinball machines haven’t had the same cultural impact as videogames. 

  • Jorpho

    Good of them to go for some of the more obscure stuff.

    The next step is for MoBA to follow suit.

  • http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

    Canabalt? there’s no Doom, but there is Canabalt… Who comes up with this junk?

  • Lobster

    Those are some good choices.

  • Schmorgluck

    Interesting selection. I don’t know all the game, but most of those I know are some kind of milestone in videogames. Yes, even Canabalt.

  • mccrum

    Paola Antonelli is hardcore balla’.  There is no current curator I respect or admire more.  I heard her talk three years ago about the working 747 that MOMA owns, because they see a plane in a museum as useless compared to one that the audience can actually experience and use.

  • wysinwyg

    Suck it, Ebert!

  • http://twitter.com/DrewCourt Drew Courtney

    Royal Rainbow!!!!!!!!!

  • mrpostal

    How the hell do you collect and display EVE Online?

  • http://twitter.com/david_tallan David Tallan

    What, no Space Invaders?