HOW DO THE VIDEO GAMES WE PLAY REFLECT AND SHAPE OUR IDENTITIES?
“...games, as with all works of art, contain the values of the people who make them. Which is why more than a single group of people should have access to the means of creating them.”2
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There is widespread debate about the types of games we play, from the use of sex and violence in many titles to the sheer lack of adequate representation. The range of perspectives in the
1 Porpentine and Neotenomie, game developers 2 Anna Anthropy, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters
“There is no place for trans women in this culture… there are temporary and disposable roles to play… but if this world is not my home then it has no right to judge me.”1
exhibition show how games can be both liberating and limiting spaces in which to reflect and reimagine the world, and how differing visions of the world can oppose one another. The games we play can affect our sense of self and the ways we relate to the world. Rindon Johnson’s Away With You highlights the racial bias evident in many games. This bias manifests itself through invisibility and absence; a lack of black lead characters, or game design that fails to accurately depict black faces, bodies and hair. Players are forced to play a persona that is far removed from their own life, or serves as a poor imitation of their reality. In Achiampong (British-Ghanaian) and Blandy’s (British) Finding Fanon series, Grand Theft Auto V – a game franchise criticised, among other things, for cultural appropriation through its emphasis of racial stereotypes – is turned on its head. As the artists explain, GTA V becomes a place to “... think about the nature of identity in the digital age, how we reconcile a history of violence and exploitation, of colonialism and cultural appropriation, with a present-day reality, a friendship between two people – one white, one black".
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