Opening next December 17 Liverpool FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) will host an amusing exhibition on the influence and widespread circulation of virtual spaces and videogames in the contemporary society.
Among other artists and projects, ‘Space Invaders: Art in the Computer Game Environment’ will also display Cao Fei’s 2004 COSplayers, a film installation following the ‘epical’ performances of some teenagers miming their favourite anime.
The exhibition analyses the way in which the virtual invades our everyday life and how this affects our behavioural and mental performances. Somehow these external stimula act upon our spatial and visual perception (to the point where die-hard fans of Tetris can contract a strange ‘imaginary disease’, ‘Tetris syndrome’, no need to mention this, where they believe that the world around them operates under the logic of the game…! ).
The influence of virtual games on the human mind is so well-acknowledged by now that in the scientific and psychological branch they’re even used to cure mental and neural pathologies such as depression or autism:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070301100807.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news174650438.html
As long as you don’t get to confuse reality with games (threatening people with your ‘augmented reality’ umbrella, flying from the CCTV to the Bird’s Nest, grabbing objects and people and trying to put them in the right shape to fit a small space…!), virtuality could therefore become an important research and medical instrument.
For more information about ‘Space-Invaders’ exhibition see:
http://www.gamersdailynews.com/story-13920-Space-Invaders-Art-in-the-Computer-Game-Environment.html
