Exhibition by Institution: A Culture Work Simulator
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
Have you ever wanted to work in an art gallery? Now you can! Explore exhibitions, inspire young artists, clean the walls, organize and store stuff, serve visitors, and experience the uncomfortable sensation of job precarity and financial uncertainty.
EXHIBITION BY INSTITUTION is a first-person art gallery simulator. The premise is inspired by tasks required of entry-level gallery employees, such as cleaning, teaching, organizing supplies, and serving visitors. These chores progress from being realistic to poetic, invoking the sensation of precarity imposed by the neoliberal funding structures that cause persistent job insecurity in the arts and culture sector.
This three-dimensional environmental narrative is created through a process of mapping personal memories and experiences of working in a small regional gallery, transposing and appropriating an existing organization (Nanaimo Art Gallery) in Nanaimo, BC as a way of exploring of space.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGRHxK30DYg
Project website:
https://exhibition.ambervisualartist.com/
Updates:
August 6th, 2021
- An installer has been added on the Windows version.
- A Mac version has been added to the page, however I would still recommend playing on PC if the option is available due to installation and performance issues.
July 3rd, 2021
The project has expanded from a simple digital gallery space to a short simulator with a narrative.
Known bugs:
- If you start or resume the game by pressing the "start" or "resume" icons in the main menu and the pause menu with the mouse button, than the curser may hang over the screen and inhibit navigation with the mouse. Simply press the pause button, "P" or "Esc" twice to pause and un-pause the game.
- UI elements do not scale correctly on some Mac versions.
Download
Install instructions
Windows:
Simply download the game and install.
If you click on the installer and get a prompt that says "Windows protected you PC", press "More info" and select " Run anyway. The reason why it pops up is because the game (namely the publisher) is not recognized by Windows.
Mac:
- Go to downloads and place the downloaded Zip file onto the desktop, then double click and extract the contents
- Right click on the extracted file and select "Show Package Contents"
- Select the "Contents" folder, than go into the "Mac OS" folder, inside there should be a be a file called "SoaE-Mac-Shipping" (We'll come back to that shortly)
- Next open a new finder window, go to applications, go to utilities, and select "Terminal" (It's basically Microsoft's version of the command console)
- on the bottom type (without quotations) "Chmod +x " press space again, and then drag the "SoaE-Mac-Shipping" file at the end of the command line and press Enter.
- Go back to finder and look for the file we extracted earlier, right click and select open. This has to be done on the finder, it will not work if you do this directly on the desktop.
If you were having trouble following along, here is a short video I found on Youtube that explains the process:
The reason the Mac version is requires more steps to use is because of the Mac's security measures. Since this game is not registered in the IOS store, the program is not identifiable to the OS, meaning that you can't open programs unless it is approved by Apple. As is often mentioned in Apple's marketing, Apple products are generally more secure, at the cost of gatekeeping.
Comments
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This was a wonderful little experience. Now that finals are over, I have time to do a deep dive into it!
As for the first day: there are so many things that one doesn't consider when visiting an art museum but this brings them all front and center. The first day cycle is a particular delight, invoking the feel of an art museum without a piece in sight. The deftly written text, however, become pieces in and upon themselves.
Day 2: I love the voice acting (it sounds so natural, but I think kids have no choice but to be natural since they are so genuine beings), and the way all the other characters follow you around. The art is a treat as well, and I am still coming up with new interpretations for why you begin this day looking at your self-portrait.
Day 3: There's something to be said about how on this day you are boxed in your little booth area and cannot move, your only interface with the game world being to serve wine to your guests. Nice little way to hammer home your game's themes without needing to use a single word.
Day 4: Formerly Idealistic Cultural Worker will stick with me. I want nothing more than to spend my life working on art, but why does that instill me with such fear? Why is it fair to spend a life doing things that make you happy to lead to such precarity? This piece puts those notions into words perfectly. The moment where you take off the miniature ceiling to reveal the actual ceiling being removed above remains my favorite moment in the game. At night, I was very impressed by the falling down the chasm sequence (I imagine that was difficult to program), and found the fact that you were given a minecraft pickaxe to extract yourself from the resources (haha) is a nice little moment of levity. Jordan Peele's US showed how the underground can be used to represent groups of people that society wishes to "bury" or forget about and I think this symbol is used to excellent effect here.
"Those Fuckers Downtown" has been now added to my YouTube mix.
Throughout the experience, you invoked the same feelings for me that The Beginner's Guide did. And I hope you know that I adore The Beginner's Guide, so this is high praise!!!
I will end with this: I remember you saying that making games can sometimes be like yelling out into the void. Certainly, it was this way for me with my first seven or so games, of which I put even more time and love into than Time is Solid Here, and in part that practice was useful for me -- to show that making art in its own reward.
But unlike my earlier titles I don't think this deserves to remain in the void. I think this piece is about asking the question: shouldn't we deserve more than the void? More than to just make art for its own reward? Shouldn't we deserve to survive off this? To thrive, even?
I'm going to make a new public collection that will show this on my profile as a title I highly recommend. My hope is that anyone passing through will visit and be able to experience this gem.
Your deep dive is incredibly appreciated. I read all of your comment alongside co-creator AutistSavant (https://autistsavant.itch.io/) and we were floored by how thoughtful and thorough your observations are. I mean, comparing our game to The Beginner's Guide?? Between that and the public collection on your profile you've really made our week! It's hard to find the right words, but honestly I'm just so grateful we've had the chance to connect and spend time with each others' work.