As the exhibition ‘Next Level: Art, Games & Reality’ in Stedelijk Museum CS is drawing to a close, SMCS on 11 is once again devoting attention to the rise of computer games as the newest art form. When is a computer game ‘art’? And how should a game be exhibited? Interactively – or precisely not? And in what context should a game be shown?

On this evening, several experts will be giving their answers to questions of this sort. On the basis of the exhibition, Brody Condon will provide a brief exposition of his work; Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell, the driving forces behind the COSIGN conferences and authors of a forthcoming book on computer games and art, will be present from London. Evert Hoogendoorn will act as moderator this evening. 

Brody Condon became famous in 2003 when he made the game 9/11 Survivor together with a group of students from the University of California San Diego. The starting point for this game is that the player, trapped in a burning skyscraper, must find a way to escape from the inferno. For many Americans, by letting fiction and reality flow together this way he overstepped the limits. Condon has a central place in ‘Next Level’.
His Suicide Solution gathers images from more than 50 first person shooter games. Again and again he shows the moment at which the player (the first person shooter) is hit. The effect is both hilarious and distressing. The title of this work refers to a number by Ozzie Osbourne which had the same title, which in 1984 was accused of having encouraged an American teenager to commit suicide.
In the work Karma Physics < Elvis he once again refers to the movements that are used in games. We see a hovering Elvis Presley, floating through space in slow motion like a congealed Barbie doll, making spasmodic gestures. This work was recently purchased by the Stedelijk Museum. Among other places, Brody Condon has exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York and, in early 2006, New York’s Pace Wildenstein Gallery. The leading art magazine Artforum has also devoted attention to Brody Condon’s work. 

Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell have written a number of articles on video games together, and this year will be publishing a book on video games and art. The book includes interviews with artists, critics and gaming experts. Clarke and Mitchell provide an overview of the diversity of video games and place them in the wider context of contemporary and historic art practice. By mapping games and their history they lay a foundation on which the game can grow further as a part of our art history. They are also co-organisers of the COSIGN conferences, which are held more or less annually. More information on these can be found at www.cosignconference.org. Grethe Mitchell is a Senior Lecturer at
the University of East London and Andy Clarke is an author, developer and curator of the digital art segment of the COSIGN conferences. 

Evert Hoogendoorn is head of Design for Virtual Theatre & Games at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Utrecht (HKU). This programme approaches games from the angle of art, and seeks the crossovers with traditional media. In addition he is senior lecturer in Game Design and Development, also at the HKU. Here games are approached from a design perspective, in which the confrontation between the user and the game is central. Both programmes focus on the interface between art and technology, where innovation is of primary importance.