Venues might be one of the most important parts of the curation process. You can't have an event without a space, digital or physical. A venue of any kind brings problems to solve. This sections give a broad over what one should keep in mind and do when approached by these challenges.
Once you have this list it is important to determine if your prospective location is capable of handling the number of devices you wish to have installed. Remember, the space's lighting, climate control, and other devices will also count against your own power requirements and may result in you cutting works from your exhibition.
If you are planning to include networked video games, internet access is crucial. In this case, ensure signal strength is good, but ideally, try to have wired connections to all your devices and disable automatic updates. It is also wise to request that this access be given its own dedicated network to reduce the security risk to the hosting institution's network.
In short, a good space for a video game exhibition should have:
If an exhibition space meets these requirements, at least from a technical perspective it should be ideal to host a video game exhibition. Obviously, other concerns such as the space's political leanings, values, audience, and context should also be considered, however, these aspects vary between curators and the artists involved so they must be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
Adaptations to a space are to be expected for a variety of reasons such as the desire to create a black box setting for a specific work, the works themselves may require special furniture to be created, to block excess light from a specific area, or even to create a particular atmosphere through set design.
Most space alterations can be done with drywall and pinewood frames. One benefit of such structures is that they can later be reused in future exhibitions, are lightweight, relatively cheap and easy to build. These materials will allow you to create not only extra walls but even theater spaces and stages – proper sound proof installation will also allow you to isolate soundscapes which in turn open up design space for multiple video games to be playable with full volume. They are also ideal to block light leaks from windows and other light sources and can be easily painted or decorated and provide extra surfaces for wall texts and labels as well as hide projectors and computers. Finally, with some creative electrician work they can be used to extend the electrical network to areas of the space that lack outlets and wired internet access.
Drywall is also not the only solution to unwanted light reflections, a simple vinyl window film can also reduce glare without eliminating light sources!
The coronavirus pandemic has provided ample room for experimentation with online venues. We are still in an experimental phase and have plenty to learn, but based off what has been done so far here are some recommendations:
Lujan Oulton
Rene G. Cepeda
Jose Luis Pacheco Boscan
John Wanamaker