Wednesday was the first day of the the EMERGENT<IMG> exhibition at Museum Angewandte Kunst and the only chance to visit the exhibition at night besides today’s tour at 8:30 PM. Congratulations to all people who have so generously contributed time, energy and skills.

12►

All preparations for tomorrow’s grand opening are done. We have set up the exibition EMERGENT<IMG> at Museum Angewandte Kunst (museum of applied arts) Frankfurt for the upcoming B3 biennial of moving images festival. The brochures are also ready. Besides the two main exhibitions there is a special exhibition to be discovered by visitors. We will provide daily updates on the exhibition.

12►

Canan Hastik presented DEMOAGE MEGAontology lightweight prototype @ Media Art Histories 2013 (MAH): Renew, 5th international conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology in Riga from October 8 – 11, 2013. The presentation was held in Archiving Session chaired by Frieder Nake.

12►

For B3 Biennial of the moving image 2013 MEGA shows a tour of selected interactive exhibits displaying the development of figurative narrativity and ludic storytelling in electronic games plus the tension between text and image. A special show about the computer game series “Ultima” leads to the main theme: The picture in relation to the text but also the development of the image itself emerges. The main exhibition is dedicated to two dimensions of storytelling in computer games, classic-literaral narrative and ludic narrative in two parallel courses.

EMERGENT<IMG>, Museum of Applied Art Frankfurt / Main, Wednesday 30.10.2013 until at least Sunday 3.11.2013.

On this last exhibition day we present the fourth main focus of “Ludic Memento”. In a cartridge library 200 volumes of different systems and different time periods are shown. Besides well-known classics that bring back vivid memories rare and unknown artifacts that have long been forgotten can be found. While the Cartridge Library illustrates a haptic and usually persistent form of digital long-term memory the video installation “Digital Oblivion” displays the origin and evolution of the electronic network culture followed by the fragility and the dissolution of content in web-based cloud systems.

12►

Another major focus in “Ludic Memento” is the juxtaposition of original home computers and emulators. Presented are classic home computers of the 1980s with various storage media, such as audio cassette, 3.5 and 5¼-inch floppy disks. Emulation is a central concept to replicate no longer available computer systems using modern hardware. But here we encounter some problems. Depending on whether it is an open or closed platform the quality of emulation varies. Emulators often are only 80% true to the original hardware and therefore have problems with graphical or auditory output or the synchronization of both. In addition there are losses to the haptics, it is no longer necessary to fiddle with storage media because content is either integrated in the internal memory or only virtually existent. As part of the exhibition MEGA shows how important it is to preserve originals and presents an approach to provide originality and haptics and the experience of both.

123►

One focus of “Ludic Memento” is dedicated to the Nintendo Game & Watch series. Developed by Gunpei Yokoi the G&W concept is not just a technological invention but also the result of an extensive sociological study and observation of user behavior. Exhibited is the complete series of 61 fully functional and very rare handheld games. Interpretations that have arisen in the context of a media archeology seminar at Darmstadt University are juxtaposed with the originals. One student team has developed a floor projection of “Vermin” and another student team an animation of “Ball”. A further “Ball” remediation focuses on the haptic of the first G&W series and the two control buttons for user interaction.

12►