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ArtScience Museum unveils immersive video game exhibition

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virtual realms video game exhibition artscience museum singapore

The ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore has announced a major exhibition called Virtual Realms: Videogames Transformed.

Launching on June 12 in Singapore, Virtual Realms is curated and organised by the Barbican alongside the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands and Australia’s Melbourne Museum.

Virtual Realms, co-curated by Japanese video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, is a multi-sensorial exhibition that focuses on video games, with interactive and immersive installations.

These were created by some of the world’s leading video game developers, including Kojima Productions, Enhance, thatgamecompany, Tequila Works, Media Molecule and David OReilly.

“Virtual Realms brings cutting-edge video games into a museum setting,” said Honor Harger, executive director of ArtScience Museum. “It enables visitors to step inside worlds created by renowned video game developers.

Step inside video game worlds

“The six newly-commissioned artworks at the heart of the exhibition take the form of stunning participative installations,” Harger added.

“By extending the story worlds, aesthetics and interactivity of well-known video games into spatial environments, the exhibition offers a different kind of museum experience.

“It invites visitors to venture on a journey of light, music, contemplation and play, experiencing how contemporary video games have truly become a 21st century cultural phenomena.”

The immersive installations serve as kaleidoscopic realms driven by unique themes, which are play, unity, connection, narrative, everything and synesthesia.

Taking video games from the screen to the ArtScience Museum’s galleries, Virtual Realms presents 21st century game design as a unique form of contemporary art.

Immersive installations in Singapore

virtual realms video game exhibition artscience museum singapore

“This exhibition paves the way for a future where the world of games spills out beyond the screen,” said Mizuguchi, co-curator of Virtual Realms and founder of Enhance.

“Virtual Realms offers game developers a unique opportunity to break free from the constraints of consoles and formal game playing and really push the boundaries of how video games can be experienced together.”

In more news, Nintendo is continuing its expansion into location-based entertainment (LBE) with a Nintendo museum opening in Kyoto in 2024. This comes after Super Nintendo World launched in Japan.

“In Virtual Realms, Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the design teams have established new, playful and experimental approaches with contemporary video games as a medium,” added Patrick Moran, co-curator.

Images: ArtScience Museum

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Bea Mitchell

Bea is a journalist specialising in entertainment, attractions and tech with 10 years' experience. She has written and edited for publications including CNET, BuzzFeed, Digital Spy, Evening Standard and BBC. Bea graduated from King's College London and has an MA in journalism.

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