Wednesday, October 6, 2010

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Game Show NYC: The Art of Learning through Games
Exhibition at Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University
May 16 – June 3, 2011

Macy Gallery and the organizers invite artists to submit proposals for Game Show NYC, an interactive exhibit devoted to the art of games and the game of art. Game Show NYC is designed to galvanize art and science, theory and practice, playfulness and seriousness, learning and teaching, the local and global, as well as a wide variety of academic specializations. This exhibition of artful games from an open call for entries celebrates the joy of learning.

Not to be confused with a TV Game Show, Game Show NYC (GSNYC) expands the concept of an Art Show by making the enjoyment of art an active and educative experience. GSNYC will serve as a forum to bring together artists, educators, and game designers, with the purpose of engaging and educating the public. The exhibition will be accompanied by a symposium stressing the essential linkage between Games, Art, and Education, tentatively titled, “Art as Experience: Games as an Artistic/Aesthetic Learning Experience,” collectively exploring what John Dewey saw as the “necessary connection of education and experience.” Game Show NYC builds on Game Show Detroit, which was held at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) in 2006. For details on the original exhibition please see: www.gameshowdetroit.com. Original organizers Fred Goodman, Andy Malone, and Nick Sousanis are joined by Suzanne Choo in jurying and putting on this exhibition and educational experience.

Proposals should include:
·         Artist’s name, email, website, physical address, and a phone number where we can reach you
·         Detailed sketches/images/video of the proposed game/piece and narrative description in terms of construction, play, etc.
·         A resume/artists statement and images of previous projects/art works, or links to such information
·         Special installation instructions and/or requirements if necessary – please keep in mind Macy Gallery has limited space (see below) and that may affect what can be displayed
·         (Please note, accepted games that upon receipt are found to not have been accurately represented in the proposal can be rejected.)

Selection Criteria: The exhibition is open to artists submitting new games, familiar games that have been artistically and educationally re-imagined, and interactive artworks fusing the idea of games, art, education, and play. This may also include performance-based works and pieces that take people out of the gallery itself – and set players exploring New York. Predicting what we are looking for with any degree of specificity is extremely difficult. We encourage entries that so blend the attractive attributes of games, art and education that no one bothers to determine which of those elements is dominant. What follows are a few generalizations … more than formal criteria:

·         Simplicity of instructions coupled with richness of play.
·         Slight, sly, simple, elegant changes in presentation of familiar games that, somehow, add a great deal of interest.
·         Artifacts that allow people to create their own games … again with a premium on simplicity that yields richness.
·         Games that change the scale of conventional games. For example, a game that plays like Marbles that is played in a courtyard or large room … or a game that plays like Capture the Flag that is played on a table.
·         Games that can be played at a simple level initially but lead to richer challenges as their subtleties unfold.
·         Games that invite creative artistic behavior by those who play them.
·         Games that teach people about art … color, shape, form, composition, balance, rhythm, history, ad infinitum.
·         Art that teaches people about games … traces of movement that expose strategies, dramatizations of the physics of action, etc.
·         Art that is fun to interact with.

Deadline: Submissions are due December 6, 2010. Artists will be notified of their acceptance status by January 19, 2011. Proposals are to be submitted through the website www.gameshownyc.com. Please direct all questions to gsnyc1@gmail.com. Artists are expected to be responsible for transporting or shipping their works to and from Macy Gallery. However, limited funding may become available. Please contact us for special requests. Also, we anticipate including video documentation of game play and creative process of artists’ works and invite ideas towards this end.

* A note about computer games: While most likely GSNYC will not be directly featuring computer games, we expect to collaborate with another unit at Teachers College which will host a concurrent digital games exhibition. Please contact us with queries and we will provide updates as they become available.

Timeline
December 6, 2010 ……...…………..Submissions due
January 19, 2011……………………Notification of jury results
May 10, 2011…….…………………Accepted games due at Macy Gallery
Friday, May 27, 2011, 5-8 pm ….....Opening reception
May 16 – June 3, 2011 ………..……Exhibition
June 4, 2011 …………..……...........Take down; pick up or return of artists’ works.

The Macy Gallery is part of the Art and Art Education program of the Department of Arts and Humanities at Teachers College, Columbia University. The Gallery exhibits artworks by national and international artists, graduate students and faculty members, as well as the finest examples of children's works. The mission of this academic Gallery is to present a wide range of exhibitions from around the world reflecting the commitment of Teachers College to cultural diversity in education and the arts. Located on the fourth floor of Macy Hall at 525 West 120th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues, the Gallery contains 1,377 square feet of floor space and 1,633 square feet of wall space. It is open Monday through Friday 11:00 AM until 6:00 PM, and by appointment. Special arrangements can be made for groups to visit the Gallery and participate in the Gallery’s ongoing Artists’ Talks and Lectures.

Macy GalleryArt and Art Education Program
444 Macy Building
Teachers College, Columbia University
525 West 120th Street
New York, NY 10027

GS:NYC Organizers/Jurors

Professor Fred Goodman is a University of Michigan Professor of Education Emeritus now living in Westlake Village, CA. He has specialized in the design of information systems, simulations and academic games for five decades. He was, for example in the 1960's, the chief consultant to the then U.S. Office of Education with responsibility for the design of the decentralized Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). Starting in 1984, he led a program at the University of Michigan’s School of Education called the Interactive Communications & Simulations (ICS) program. For 25 years ICS has been connecting thousands of secondary students in schools throughout the world via computer-aided-communications to participate in term-long exercises like the Arab-Israeli Conflict simulation, the International Poetry Guild, a variety of Earth Odysseys (in which students interact with one another in response to actual trips to various parts of the world that have been taken by ICS-affiliated travelers) and a “character-playing forum” called Place Out Of Time (POOT) wherein students become characters from the past discussing current dilemmas. ICS was honored in 2000 as a Computerworld Smithsonian project. He also has had major responsibility at the University of Michigan for the Master of Arts in Education with Teacher Certification Program (known as the "MAC Program") designed to attract people into teaching from other careers and is the designer of a wide variety of academic games, some computerized, some not, on many subjects. He is the author of several entries in American Educational Research Association (AERA) sponsored Handbooks and Encyclopedias on "Instructional Gaming" as well as numerous articles on the subject.

New York City based writer, artist, educator Nick Sousanis is a doctoral candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University, and is in the midst of developing his dissertation in comic book form. Prior to his arrival in New York, he was heavily involved in Detroit’s arts community where among other things he co-founded www.thedetroiter.com, an arts and cultural web-magazine. From 2005 to 2007, he chaired the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) and served as the founding director of the University of Michigan’s Work : Detroit Gallery. During his time in Detroit, he came to be the biographer of legendary Detroit artist Charles McGee, which is forthcoming from Wayne State University Press. He also taught public speaking and writing at Wayne State University. His educational comics can be seen at www.spinweaveandcut.com.

Andy Malone holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Detroit Mercy, and has worked in the exhibit and custom furniture industry for over twelve years. From 2002 to 2007 he served as the Vice President of the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) Board of Trustees. Andy's whimsical machines, board games and drawings have been shown in over forty exhibitions since 1995, most notably in the 2002 Selecti show at Detroit Artist Market (chosen by Whitney curator Lawrence Rinder). He was a juror for the DEMF Public Art Exhibition (2003), Animate Object (2005) and Game Show Detroit (2006). Andy also curated the Bravo! Bravo! Exhibition at the Detroit Opera House in 2004 and 2005. Two of Andy's mini golf holes were displayed on the grounds of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) for summer and fall of 2007. Andy also had solo exhibitions of his work at the DIA in 2007 and 2010. In 2008, Andy won best in show at Re:Action, a kinetic sculpture exhibition at Ann Marie Gardens in Solomons, Maryland. In 2010, Andy was featured in Make Magazine (#23) and interviewed on American Black Journal. He won an Editor's Choice award at Maker Faire Detroit in 2010, and curated the Detroit Board Game Collective exhibition which also won an Editor's Choice award at the Faire. More information can be found at www.andymalone.com.

Suzanne Choo is a PhD candidate in English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She taught English Literature in a Singapore high school for eight years and lectured in the teaching of English Literature at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. Her interests are in multimodality, literature education, global and cosmopolitan citizenship and she has worked as a consultant to various schools and organizations in New York City. In 2008, she was awarded she was the Overseas Graduate Scholarship from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and was a recipient of the Education Pioneers Fellowship in 2009. Her research has been published in various international journals such as English Journal, the International Journal of the Humanities, and the Journal of Curriculum Studies. She co-wrote the book “Reel World Learning: Integrating Media in the English Classroom” which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2007. Her website is www.inlovewithwords.com.