I took my family to Washington DC a couple months back, and was surprised to see the "Art of Video Games" exhibit current at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. I grabbed some pics while I was there, and figured I'd share the set of images with you guys. I still need to fix the presentation of these pics, but still viewable.

It was kind of cool, though I wish they had more concept art. It was cool seeing all the old systems, and many of them were playable. If you're in the DC area, I'd suggest checking it out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2871270...7631012149176/


SAM_2101 by notman05, on Flickr

damn, I remember when most of those were new

awesome man, i remember hearing about this when there was some sort of survey going around about what should be included, really cool to see some pics!

Originally Posted by MikeF

awesome man, i remember hearing about this when there was some sort of survey going around about what should be included, really cool to see some pics!

I remember that too... then I remember being reminded from the results that the internet was voting.

Quake II beat out Deus Ex as a representation of video games as art. I wanted somebody to stop the series of tubes so I could get off.

Awesome. I'm going to be D.C. first week after labor day....going to check it out. Thanks.

I went a few months back, it was pretty neat to see this sort of thing in the Smithsonian, though I was disappointed with how little "art" was actually in the show.

Yeah, that was my only disappointment too. It's worth a view, but would have loved more concept drawings

Very cool stuff, thanks for pics!

Originally Posted by notman

Yeah, that was my only disappointment too. It's worth a view, but would have loved more concept drawings

Ya know, in all honesty I would have preferred a video or kiosk showing the pipeline breakdown for the art in games, concept to model (or sculpt depending on the era) to textures to in engine. Maybe even some time lapse zbrush/modeling with a 3d print of the finished piece.

Maybe next time...

slightly related: Should any of you guys ever find yourselves here in Berlin, check out the computer games museum (http://www.computerspielemuseum.de/1210_Home.htm) .. it's kinda small, but well worth a visit.
There's also a bit of a breakdown on what it took to produce mid 2000's title 'planetopia', with concept art etc.

I got to see this show a few months ago--If I remember right, it wasn't bad--it was nice to see an exhibit there on principle to counter the Eberts of the world, but ... it's really like.. "Baby's First Game Art Exhibit" in a lot of ways.

It dwells much too long on the same popular franchises that show up on the top 10 lists over on IGN. Rather than try and get a little more variety on the floor, there were a dozen iterations of Zelda and Mario. Even Pitfall, Donkey Kong, and Phantasy Star showed up multiple times, rather than using the space for more titles. There were a few random throwback titles, sure...but they felt like they were probably the curator's old favorites or something (Spy vs. Spy the game...? I mean, maybe it was an awesome game, but really?).

It's a nice first step, but it felt to me mostly just like a tool to get people in the museum doors. That said, it was still fun for the excuse to go into DC!