If you like your video games with a healthy dose of existential crisis (like I do!), then be sure to drop in and play the extraordinary video games currently exhibited in “Safety in Nebulous” at REVERSE in Brooklyn.
Human-made systems, from search engines to home plumbing, surround us in layers and are ingrained in our daily activities. Videogames, as a microcosm of such systems, contain their own sets of familiar systemic elements, like control schemes, goals, or hardware constraints. “Safety in Nebulous,” selected from our curatorial open call and curated by Stephen Lawrence Clark, explores the the wonder, banality, comfort, humor, and terror that can arise, often simultaneously, out of designed systems.
Curator Stephen Lawrence Clark did a fantastic job of collaborating with the exhibiting artists by helping them to build suitably whimsical interfaces that reflect the philosophical quandaries explored in the the games. Like the concepts of impermanence that the games question, the unorthodox arcade game cabinets are made from from cardboard, LEDs, and other salvaged materials.
I won’t ruin the unique surprises that each of these unusual video games holds by describing them here, but I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed playing all of the games at the exhibition opening, so be sure to stop by and try them for yourself when you can. REVERSE is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and open Wednesday through Saturday from 1 to 7 and from 2 to 6 on Sundays.
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