POV Alternative Games Exhibition

PoV: Alternative Games Exhibition

June 17-20, 2005
Port of Vancouver, Renaissance Hotel Waterfront
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The PoV (Point of View) Alternative Games Exhibition focused on groundbreaking digital games and game-based projects that innovated through content, process, use of technology, interaction, expectations and audience; in short, games that refuse to rehash standard themes and paradigms.

PoV ran in conjunction with the Digital Games Research Association’s 2005 international conference “Changing Views: Worlds in Play.” The curatoral team, lead by Cindy Poremba, included Rebecca Cannon, Celia Pearce, Ian Bogost, Željko Blace, and Mary Flanagan.

The theme for this event reflected “Changing Views” focus on the emergence of digital games as a “serious” and significant medium with the potential to influence, delight, educate, and challenge.  PoV (Point of View) will invite participants to present works that create alternative perspectives or viewpoints, or take an innovative or experimental approach to the game experience. Of particular interest were works that explore subjectivities in game environments: games that challenged ideas surrounding players, creators, and contexts; revealed new means of representation and interaction; presented personal expressions of hardware; or otherwise played with notions of content, context, and form.

Games showcased:

• Organum (Greg Niemeyer, Dan Perkel, Ryan Shaw, Jane McGonigal)
• Mindbending Software (Robert Praxmarer and Florian Berger)
• Blowhard (Quasi-Cause Heavy Media Industries [Ryan Schoelerman and Sky Frostenson])
• Orgasm Simulator + Queer Power (Molleindustria)
• Dyadin (Mike Brinker, Jenova Chen, Todd Furmanski, Vincent Diamante , Erik Nelson and Glenn Song)
• Escape from Woomera (Escape from Woomera Collective)

PoV Exhibition Catalog