Serious Fun: Exhibition at Vienna’s Architekturzentrum

Along with classic architectural games of wood or metal, virtual games played at computers or consoles have an ever-greater presence, and digital spaces are becoming increasingly realistic. The Serious Fun exhibition is showing not only board games and architectural narratives of dollhouses, but also the guiding principles behind the creation of imaginary cities and entire worlds.

In contrast to pictorial representations, which we generally afford a distanced view, games allow us to dive into a scene. They give us the feeling of being in control and being able to decide for ourselves about the situation and what will happen next. However, this interactive behaviour is ambivalent. While players can use their game characters to influence developments to which they have no access in reality, the games are manipulated by their developers and the endings are predetermined. In other words, it is not only worlds that are created, but world views.

Exhibition view 6 © Architekturzentrum Wien, Photo: Lisa Rastl

Visitors can take virtual city tours or recreate the spatial experience of the blind in an acoustic video game. The exhibition aims to enable immersion into the games, and also to encourage us to take a distanced, critical look at the world of games.