I went earlier. Let me summarize a bit in case it saves you some time.
I was fully expecting the exhibit to be more about the Asian influence on games, historically and more recently. Instead, it was 4ish exhibit halls which had various Parcheesi Boards, Go Boards, Chess Boards, Mancalla Boards a scant few representative card games and what was seemingly an afterthought on 'sport'.
Don't get me wrong, some of the pieces are beautiful, and the way some of the older boards fit together is all together fascinating (and I wish modern manufacturing could rival the love that was evident in some of those boards). The multitude of options to play the same set of rules was also interesting, but not explicitely stated in the exhibit.
What this exhibit was not, however, was exploratory as to how Asian culture has influenced gaming over the years. Even the coffee table book that was being sold with the exhibit didn't delve into that topic, and instead maintained a very 'these are games, they are toys' kind of attitude towards the whole thing.
The one thing I found most fascinating was not the exhibit itself or the accompanying text with the items that was intended for the adults, but the children's plaques, which were supposedly 'dumbed down' versions of the adult prose (they weren't). With the exception of a rather glaring factual error on the children's plaques (if you go, see if you can find it, it's near one of the 'go' boards), they kid's version of the exhibit was much more interesting and thought provoking.
Maybe society, at least the kind that goes to the Sackler and Freer Galleries, isn't really ready to explore the influence which asian culture has had on games as a whole, versus simply presenting the games which have directly come out of asian culture.
Anyway -- I went and enjoyed my lunch at Mitsitam more.
Thanks for the review - I'll still want to go, just to see the boards if nothing else, but is disappointing they didn't do more with the interpretation.
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no subject
Date: 11 May 2005 17:13 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 May 2005 15:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 May 2005 15:58 (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 May 2005 18:25 (UTC)I was fully expecting the exhibit to be more about the Asian influence on games, historically and more recently. Instead, it was 4ish exhibit halls which had various Parcheesi Boards, Go Boards, Chess Boards, Mancalla Boards a scant few representative card games and what was seemingly an afterthought on 'sport'.
Don't get me wrong, some of the pieces are beautiful, and the way some of the older boards fit together is all together fascinating (and I wish modern manufacturing could rival the love that was evident in some of those boards). The multitude of options to play the same set of rules was also interesting, but not explicitely stated in the exhibit.
What this exhibit was not, however, was exploratory as to how Asian culture has influenced gaming over the years. Even the coffee table book that was being sold with the exhibit didn't delve into that topic, and instead maintained a very 'these are games, they are toys' kind of attitude towards the whole thing.
The one thing I found most fascinating was not the exhibit itself or the accompanying text with the items that was intended for the adults, but the children's plaques, which were supposedly 'dumbed down' versions of the adult prose (they weren't). With the exception of a rather glaring factual error on the children's plaques (if you go, see if you can find it, it's near one of the 'go' boards), they kid's version of the exhibit was much more interesting and thought provoking.
Maybe society, at least the kind that goes to the Sackler and Freer Galleries, isn't really ready to explore the influence which asian culture has had on games as a whole, versus simply presenting the games which have directly come out of asian culture.
Anyway -- I went and enjoyed my lunch at Mitsitam more.
no subject
Date: 11 May 2005 18:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 May 2005 03:26 (UTC)Click on folks listed in his review for others' reviews from the same exhibit (we saw it together).
no subject
Date: 14 May 2005 03:57 (UTC)