Students participating in a novel design contest might rephrase the famous quotation to something like, "Art imitates video games that imitate life." Students at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, Academy of Art University in San Francisco and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles are teaming up with Electronic Arts Inc. to produce exhibitions that celebrate "The Sims.
" The strategic simulation game was the brainchild of EA designer Will Wright. Players create homes, businesses and social networks using virtual characters, or Sims, who live in suburban SimCity. Since the title's debut in 2000, fans have bought more than 85 million copies of "Sims" games, which are starkly dissimilar from the violent "first-person shooters" popular with hard-core gamers.
The game is credited with greatly expanding the market to include girls, older adults and other nontraditional gamers. Artists in the EA contest will work in media including paintings, sculptures and clothing. Another category is "Machinima," films with computer-generated imagery based on the video game.
Judges will award $36,000 in prizes. You must be a user to post comments. Your comment will be published at the bottom of the story.
Once a comment is submitted, you will not be able to edit or delete the comment.
News RSS