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Arca will use AI to soundtrack NYC's Museum of Modern Art
If you pay a visit to New York City's Museum of Modern Art in the near future, you'll be awash in artificial intelligence before you've even seen an exhibit. Electronic musician Arca (who has produced for Bjork and FKA Twigs) has announced that a piece she wrote using Bronze's AI creative tool will provide the soundtrack for MoMA's lobby for the next two years once it reopens on October 21st. Don't think that it'll be just the same tune playing on loop, though. The AI will "never make the music play the same way twice," Arca said. In that sense, it's more like one very large piece.
Bjork's interactive 'Biophilia' album is the first downloadable app in MoMA's permanent collection
We've seen lots of crazy things on display at the Museum of Modern Art -- a "rain room," a sex toy that works with your phone, a sleeping Academy Award-winning actress. Now you can add "tablet app" to that list. Bjork's "Biophilia," an interactive album released on iOS and Android, has become the first downloadable app to join MoMA's permanent collection. First released in 2011 (and still available for sale), the album allows listeners to "contribute" to songs by playing with interactive on-screen visuals. In "Solstice," for instance (pictured above), the orbits actually allow you to control the string music, with the option to save and record your own version. Ultimately, it was that interactivity that earned the app a spot in the collection. "With Biophilia, Björk truly innovated the way people experience music by letting them participate in performing and making the music and visuals, rather than just listening passively," said MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli in a blog post.
Minecraft belongs in a museum, according to MoMA
New York's Museum of Modern Art has announced that it is adding six video games, including Minecraft, and a console to its famous collection of contemporary art. The Museum chose to honor fourteen games last year (including Pac-Man, SimCity 2000, EVE Online, and Portal) based on their traits of behavior, aesthetics, space, and time. This year, the museum is adding Atari classics Pong, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Tempest, and Yar's Revenge, as well as Mojang's modern hit, Minecraft. MoMA's also adding the Magnavox Odyssey to the collection, remembering it not only as the first commercial home video game console, but as "a masterpiece of engineering and industrial design." As part of the museum's collection, all of these games and the console will periodically show up in exhibits put together by MoMA's Architecture and Design department.
EVE Online: Retribution gets a launch trailer
The launch of EVE Online: Retribution just wouldn't be right without a launch trailer. That's why today, in preparation for the blessed event, a snazzy trailer called Consequences made its way to IGN. Skip below the cut to see and hear the trailer in all its sci-fi glory. While we're on the subject of videos, though, there's something else for EVE Online fans to get excited about. Remember how we told you about EVE making it into the Museum of Modern Art's upcoming video game exhibit? The CCP team wants your help making that a spectacular exhibit! A new blog post is putting out a call to make Sunday, December 9th, the busiest and most interesting day in the history of the game -- and to record every last second of it. Well, at least every last riveting second. The team is hoping to use user-captured video and sound, in conjunction with other recordings and infographics, to present New Eden in an accessible light. Read the official post for all the details.
Museum of Modern Art picks 14 pretty, ugly games for new exhibit
New York's Museum of Modern Art is hosting a video game exhibit beginning in March 2013 with installments of 14 initial games, featuring Pac-Man, Tetris, Myst, Katamari Damacy, Dwarf Fortress, Portal and Canabalt, among others.MoMA eventually wants to incorporate 40 games into the show, with a wishlist including Asteroids, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Grim Fandango and Minecraft. Games are chosen based on a "tight filter" that covers behavior, aesthetics, space and time, meaning the "selection does not include some immensely popular video games that might have seemed like no-brainers to video game historians," Senior Curator Paola Antonelli writes."Are video games art?" Antonelli asks herself. "They sure are, but they are also design, and a design approach is what we chose for this new foray into this universe."Check out the full list of 14 below, along with a few more from MoMA's wishlist.
EVE Online coming to NYC's Museum of Modern Art
New York City's Museum of Modern Art is prepping a new video game exhibit for next year and has selected EVE Online to be one of the first 14 titles included. The sci-fi MMO will join the company of titles like Tetris, Portal, and The Sims starting in March 2013. While attendees will be able to play some of the titles in the gallery, Senior Curator Paola Antonelli said that the staff had to get creative with titles like EVE Online: "To convey their experience, we will work with players and designers to create guided tours of these alternate worlds so the visitor can begin to appreciate the extent and possibilities of the complex gameplay." Antonelli said that all of the selections were chosen "as outstanding examples of interaction design." The museum hopes to expand the exhibit to 40 titles in the near future.
Kraftwerk performing 3D-enhanced retrospective concerts over 8 nights at MoMA
New York City isn't Europe and eight straight nights isn't exactly endless (though, it's plenty long if you're talking about lamp oil), but this humble metropolis is good enough for electronic and Krautrock pioneers Kraftwerk. The robo-rockers are heading to MoMa on April 10th and will be playing eight albums in chronological order, starting with Autobahn, over eight nights. The performances will sadly only feature one member of the classic lineup, but it will be augmented with 3D video and other visual media (presumably including neon lights). Tickets for the concert series, Kraftwerk-Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, go on sale at noon on February 22nd for $25.[Image credit: Andréas Hagström, Wikipedia]
'Pxl Pushr' blends Kinect and iPad play to impressive, multicolor results
Among the dozen or so games strewn about New York City's Museum of Modern Art (during last week's Kill Screen-curated "Arcade" event) two titles had their playable debuts: Eric Zimmerman and Nathalie Pozzi's "Starry Heavens" ("a physical game of power and betrayal"), as well as Matt Boch and Ryan Challinor's "Pxl Pushr" ("something akin to a full-bodied theremin blended with a puzzle game"). Considering what the two freshman entries were up against -- critically acclaimed games like Limbo, Canabalt, and Echochrome -- it was impressive that both games had lengthy lines throughout the evening. I mean no offense when I say this, but Pxl Pusher looks like what would've happened if Kinect technology had existed in the Coleco Vision days. In the same way that your Dad's sweet 1973 Lacoste track jacket still looks totally rad, so does Pxl Pushr. The bizarre look is both a measure of the dev duo's style -- their day jobs are as designers at Harmonix -- and of the short-term development cycle. "Over the past four weeks-ish we've been messing around building this game," Boch explained. In Pxl Pushr, one player places dots on an iPad, while another player attempts to catch as many dots as possible by using the contortions of their body (via Kinect). The player contorting their body is scored on how many pixels he/she is able to "push" versus the ones they miss. It's a simple concept for sure, but one that had many attendees smiling while making very silly poses. Not that the crowd's reaction was foreign to Boch and Challinor, two gentlemen who spend their working hours with Dance Central 2.%Gallery-129438%
Walk with me through the MoMA's 'Talk To Me' gaming exhibit
This past Wednesday evening, high-brow gaming mag Kill Screen teamed up with a handful of developers, several sponsors, and New York City's Museum of Modern Art to celebrate "Talk To Me," an exhibit at the MoMA focusing on "Design and the communication between people and objects." Kill Screen's "Arcade" event brought together games from a variety of well-respected developers to highlight that very concept. We headed over to the "Arcade" event and snapped a mess of photos of both that night's happenings and the exhibit itself -- a virtual walkthrough, if you will. "Talk To Me" will be on display at the MoMA through November 7, so you still have a few more months to head over and experience it firsthand if you like what you see. Sadly, there won't be a variety of games strewn throughout the museum when you visit, but perhaps playing Canabalt on your phone as you peruse the exhibit will offer some minor verisimilitude.%Gallery-129438%
MIT's Backtalk project / art exhibit traces the unseen life of discarded gadgets
Sooner or later, the device you're reading this on will either be sold, donated, recycled or otherwise disposed of; and unless you're particularly nostalgic about old gadgets like us, you likely won't ever give it much more thought. But no matter how you get rid of it, that device doesn't just vanish off the face the Earth. It's that extra life that got the folks from MIT's SENSEable City Lab thinking, and the Backtalk project is what they've come up with. Part research project and part art exhibition (now on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York), the effort involved using GPS tracking devices to trace where things like cellphones, batteries and printer cartridges end up after being discarded -- and, in the case of 40 netbook computers, some tracking software and their built-in webcams, which recorded data and images that were sent back to MIT at regular intervals (with the new owners' consent, of course). Some of the results can be seen in the video after the break and the site linked below, but you'll have to check out the exhibit first-hand to see the full scope of their findings.
NYC Museum of Modern Art to co-host 'Arcade' event with Kill Screen
It seems the "Games as Art" debate is over, as New York City's Museum of Modern Art is co-hosting a game-centric event later this month with haute gaming mag Kill Screen. Titled "Arcade," the one-night soiree on July 27 features several great indie games (Bit.Trip Beat, Canabalt, Limbo, and "a new motion-based Kinect project" from current Harmonix employees Ryan Challinor and Matt Boch, as seen here). The games will be playable throughout various parts of the museum, including the MoMA's gorgeous sculpture garden. That's where we'll be hanging out, in case that wasn't clear. You may be wondering how the folks at Kill Screen finagled a gaming night at one of the world's most famous art museums, and we were too. It turns out that the event is part of MoMA's "Talk to Me" exhibit, which explores "the communication between people and objects." Video games seem like a perfect fit, no? If the incredible location and selection of great games weren't enough to convince you, tickets are just $16 in advance and $20 at the door, which entitles you to "an exclusive viewing, a cocktail reception, a tote bag," as well as the aforementioned opportunity to play games at the MoMA. We'll also be there in our sharpest outfit handing out exaggerated high fives, so keep an eye out! Update: This post originally pegged Ryan Challinor and Matt Boch as former Harmonix employees, when in fact they are both still employed at the studio. Sorry guys!
Google announces Google Instant search, available now for desktop, mobile this fall
We're reporting live from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where Google's just taken the wraps off its latest software product. The announcement itself is taking its time right now, with background facts like Google recently crossing the one billion users a week milestone, but the Google Instant service has been activated and you can see details about its immediate result delivery at the source below. Basically, the Goog no longer waits for you to hit Enter while searching and starts updating its results page Instantly as you type. Google describes it as a fundamental shift in seach and you can find more details along with its warm and fuzzy video introduction after the break.%Gallery-101726%%Gallery-101727%
SL's Node Zero Gallery
Thursday night, from 6 to 9 PM, SLT, the Node Zero Gallery in Second Life will host a showing of interactive art exhibits from 8 talented artists: Sp0t Schism, Georg Janick, Feathers Boa, Bryn Oh, Adam Ramona, Aiyas Aya, Ub Yifu, and Crash Perfect. What's interactive art, you ask? It's what you get when you combine visual ideas with programming -- some of the exhibits can be walked through and played with, others will take you on an underground adventure with puzzles to solve and treasures to find.At 7 PM, there will be a live Q and A session with Sp0t Schism who is currently featured in New York's Museum of Modern Art website, and also on the cover of Leonardo magazine. You can find his gorgeous, trippy videos at his website. I won't be able to make the event, but I'll return to Node Zero to get shots of the gallery![Thanks, Lisa!]
The Newton Virus spreads joy
Remember back in the old days, when men were men, dogs ran free, and computers were the size of small countries? It was a time when viruses weren't malicious, rather, they delivered cherry popsicles, unicorns, and nuclear joy-beams. Well, now you can return to a simple time of laughter and love thanks to the Newton Virus and related dongle, created by the design collective Troika. Instead of gnashing your files, spamming your address book, or giving you "The Finger" repeatedly, this virus engages just once, and creates a playful desktop mishap that will undoubtedly inspire the victim to hug the nearest person. Though the virus was coded way back in 2005, it's now being shown at the MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition. Watch it all go down, literally, in the video after the break.[Thanks, H&M]
Nokia's nanotech Morph goes on display, signals melting devices in our future
Why is Nokia always trying to outdo everyone with its fancy-schmancy concepts and designs? Why can't they just get in line and keep it simple? We may never know the answer to those questions, but what we do know is that the company is presenting a new concept device called the Morph that would be right at home... in the year 3000. The unit is included in the MoMA's "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition catalog, and boasts the ability to stretch and flex to almost any shape a user could think of. The nanotechnology-based device would deliver transparent electronics, self-cleaning surfaces, and the malleability to transform into any number of configurations. Of course, the actual technology required to put this together is years or even decades away, though Nokia expects to see some of these innovations making their way into high-end products within seven years. See the device doing its thing in some photos after the break.Update: Tipster Pdexter pointed us to a video of the Morph in "action" -- check it out after the break.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
