Jaro Gielens' collection of over 400 handheld and tabletop computer games from the late '70s to the early '80s is documented in a book titled Electronic Plastic, published by Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin (available through amazon). The breathtaking design of the book is by Lopetz, a member of the Swiss graphics collective Büro Destruct, who is a game fanatic and Japanophile. Just as the design of the plastic shells and accessories of the games cleverly mimicked their subject matter ("Safari," "Airport Panic"), Lopetz riffs on the colors, logos, and typography of the games, yielding a hybrid experience that is more "now" than nostalgic. To view thumbnails of the entire book, click here.
There is a shop which specializes in these games on St. Marks between 2nd $ 3rd aves. (south side of St. Marks) I spent a couple of minutes browsing through the display cases. Pocket Donkey Kong, Pocket Simon, Pocket Pac Man etc.....
Spendy of course.
The book design is incredible. Thanks for bringing this to the net. -M.
The Art World Starts to Pay Attention to Video Games
Thanks for posting the link, although I really dislike much of the art mentioned in the article: art that can be described in a pithy sound bite, art that "deconstructs" older, more famous art, art that relies on technological gimmicks. For example, "A Space Invaders-style game in which players fire at words from Michel Foucault's 1977 essay 'What Is an Author?'" or "Images of the Rodney King beating, the Columbine school shootings, the car crash in which the Princess of Wales died, done in the style of The Sims."
Miltos Manetas, who paints still lifes of Playstations, computer cables, and the like, and who's been trying very hard to be the it guy for digital art, is featured prominently in the article. After comparing himself to Goya, Cezanne, and Warhol, he claims that "nobody has made any art with such stuff [computer and video game hardware] before." That's not really true: Lowell Nesbitt was painting photorealistic pictures of IBM mainframes back in the '60s. Who's Lowell Nesbitt? Exactly.
In response to an above message that inquired as to who is Lowell Nesbitt?
Lowell Nesbitt to this day remains one of the most innovative realist's of the second half of the 20th Century, as he was not only the first to have the foresight to incorporate "electronic & digital" subject matter into his artwork, he was also the first Contemporary artist to incorporate x-ray's into his subject matter.
In the late 1960's NASA took notice of Nesbitt's new found subject matter, and took him on as the official artist for the apollo 9 and 13 space missions...
Having died in 1993, Lowell Nesbitt's legacy is slowly but surely progressing with each passing year... At present nearly every leading American Museum owns works by Nesbitt, in addition to many institutions abroad. Despite the fact that experts recognize Nesbitt as being "the most important botanical painter since Georgia O'Keeffe", future critics in retrospect are sure to indentify Lowell Nesbitt's extreme inovation in being the FIRST artist to incorporate electronic and digital subject matter into his paintings and drawings.
For further information regarding Lowell Nesbitt, and other leading comtemporary Realist's such as Ian Hornak and Jean Pierre Yvaral, please contact the Eric I. Spoutz Collection of Fine Art, which owns the largest privately held collection in the world of works by Lowell Nesbitt.
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Jaro Gielens' collection of over 400 handheld and tabletop computer games from the late '70s to the early '80s is documented in a book titled Electronic Plastic, published by Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin (available through amazon). The breathtaking design of the book is by Lopetz, a member of the Swiss graphics collective Büro Destruct, who is a game fanatic and Japanophile. Just as the design of the plastic shells and accessories of the games cleverly mimicked their subject matter ("Safari," "Airport Panic"), Lopetz riffs on the colors, logos, and typography of the games, yielding a hybrid experience that is more "now" than nostalgic. To view thumbnails of the entire book, click here.
- tom moody 7-28-2001 4:43 pm
There is a shop which specializes in these games on St. Marks between 2nd $ 3rd aves. (south side of St. Marks) I spent a couple of minutes browsing through the display cases. Pocket Donkey Kong, Pocket Simon, Pocket Pac Man etc.....
Spendy of course.
- steve 7-28-2001 4:52 pm
The book design is incredible. Thanks for bringing this to the net. -M.
- anonymous (guest) 7-31-2001 6:40 pm
The Art World Starts to Pay Attention to Video Games
- dave 8-09-2001 12:21 pm
Thanks for posting the link, although I really dislike much of the art mentioned in the article: art that can be described in a pithy sound bite, art that "deconstructs" older, more famous art, art that relies on technological gimmicks. For example, "A Space Invaders-style game in which players fire at words from Michel Foucault's 1977 essay 'What Is an Author?'" or "Images of the Rodney King beating, the Columbine school shootings, the car crash in which the Princess of Wales died, done in the style of The Sims."
Miltos Manetas, who paints still lifes of Playstations, computer cables, and the like, and who's been trying very hard to be the it guy for digital art, is featured prominently in the article. After comparing himself to Goya, Cezanne, and Warhol, he claims that "nobody has made any art with such stuff [computer and video game hardware] before." That's not really true: Lowell Nesbitt was painting photorealistic pictures of IBM mainframes back in the '60s. Who's Lowell Nesbitt? Exactly.
- tom moody 8-11-2001 12:03 am
- nihongo (guest) 9-09-2003 7:25 pm
- nihongo (guest) 9-09-2003 7:25 pm
In response to an above message that inquired as to who is Lowell Nesbitt?
Lowell Nesbitt to this day remains one of the most innovative realist's of the second half of the 20th Century, as he was not only the first to have the foresight to incorporate "electronic & digital" subject matter into his artwork, he was also the first Contemporary artist to incorporate x-ray's into his subject matter.
In the late 1960's NASA took notice of Nesbitt's new found subject matter, and took him on as the official artist for the apollo 9 and 13 space missions...
Having died in 1993, Lowell Nesbitt's legacy is slowly but surely progressing with each passing year... At present nearly every leading American Museum owns works by Nesbitt, in addition to many institutions abroad. Despite the fact that experts recognize Nesbitt as being "the most important botanical painter since Georgia O'Keeffe", future critics in retrospect are sure to indentify Lowell Nesbitt's extreme inovation in being the FIRST artist to incorporate electronic and digital subject matter into his paintings and drawings.
For further information regarding Lowell Nesbitt, and other leading comtemporary Realist's such as Ian Hornak and Jean Pierre Yvaral, please contact the Eric I. Spoutz Collection of Fine Art, which owns the largest privately held collection in the world of works by Lowell Nesbitt.
- anonymous (guest) 3-31-2004 5:46 am