The Plug-In Studio logocollaborations in art and technology
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The Street Arcade, Sept 2, 2015, outside Hyde Park Art Center. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.
A teen artist helps her young sister try the games. Photo courtesy the Plug-In Studio.
Visitors play videogames at the Street Arcade. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.
A young visitor tries out a game.
A young visitor tries out a game. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.
A crowd gathers as the Street Arcade kicks off. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.
Exploring Squishy Circuits at an ArtMakerSpace event.
Visitors played the games on custom-made arcade-style consoles.
As the sun set, the games were visible on the side of the building and on the 2nd floor video projections.
Visitors play videogames at the Street Arcade. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.
A teen artist discusses his game with his father.
Visitors play videogames at the Street Arcade. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.
Visitors play videogames at the Street Arcade. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.
Visitors play videogames at the Street Arcade. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.

The Street Arcade

Social issue videogames, Summer 2015


A slideshow of images from the event.

The Plug-In Studio's Street Arcade is a collaborative new media art project that uses social issue video games as a platform for community dialogue.

Over the summer of 2015, Kerry Richardson and Steve Ciampaglia collaborated with thirteen teen artists from Chicago's South Side to create a series of art video games on contemporary social issues: white privilege, racial profiling, peer pressure and others.

These unique, 8-bit style games were then featured at the Street Arcade, an outdoor public event at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. Several custom-made arcade-style consoles with red-knob joysticks and buttons were installed along the street on a warm summer evening. Each console projected the games in large scale onto the exterior of the art center building. As family, friends and neighbors passing by gathered along the sidewalk to play the games, the teen artists engaged them in a diaglogue about the social issues.

This project is generously supported by A Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art. The Street Arcade project was offered in partnership with Hyde Park Art Center.

Play the videogames online here.