Yesterday I visited Mediamatic in Amsterdam. They put together exhibitions, presentations, workshops, films, have a design studio, cafe and much more. Their current exhibit ARCADE features tons of oldskool video games on their original console or arcade cabinet, as far back as Pong (1977) to the new Playstation 3D (2010), as well as a variety of home-brewed interactive art projects and games. When you enter you are given an RFID tag in a heart. You use it to trigger games to start, as well as to take photos, save info about your favorite games and even to steer in the table game where you race a tiny self-portrait icon you draw of yourself. I made a list of things I want to do this year and opening a temporary DIY art/game arcade ranks high up there. Speaking of which, check this article in the NYTimes about Babycastles DIY homebrew and curated arcade in Brooklyn. There’s a good photo series here shot by Mustafa Abdulaziz.
The video above (as well as this blog) was shot and edited entirely on my cell phone. I’m traveling light.
