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The Street Arcade, Sept 2, 2015.
The Street Arcade, Sept 2, 2015, outside Hyde Park Art Center. Photo courtesy Robert Banke.
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 Games

Social issue games as a platform for dialogue

The Street Arcade games were created through a collaboration between 13 teen artists and the Plug-In Studio. made by teen artists in collaboration with the Plug-In Studio

Learn more about the project here.


NO WAY OUT
Noah Wilson

"Every time I watch a horror movie or an action movie, I notice that the black guy always dies first. Sometimes for no good reason at all. I see it as a representation of real life, as we don't have the opportunities to survive or be successful. I wanted to explore that and see why that was."

NERD NEEDS HELP
Tori Neealy

"There's always bullying going on in different schools, and there's people dying--killing themselves--over this. It needs to stop. So, if you play a game about it...it can spread a message to just stop this."

NOT GOOD ENOUGH
Christian Carll-Mouton

"The name of my game is Not Good Enough and the reason it is called that...you have to play the game as both characters to get to the definition of the title. Really the message is in the game."

WANTS VS. NEEDS
Justin Smart

"As a kid, myself, I really struggled to save money but now that I'm older...I kinda developed the habit to say, 'Hey I don't have to spend this dollar right away.' My game is about the challenges of choosing the things that you might want over things that you need."

THE CLEANSING
Osaze Pettaway-Smith

"Prejudice can lead to harming someone because you get the wrong idea about them--something that's not even true."

YOUR CHOICE
Brooklynn Howard

"I was interested in the fact that a lot of teens choose the wrong things because of their friends or because of peer pressure, and a lot of people don't tell them, 'It's your choice.' They don't know they have a choice to not do something if they don't want to."

BAD HABITS
Atieno Hope

"Kids my age today battle obesity because [things like] social media target them the most."

CAN YOU SERVE AND PROTECT?
Gary Willis

"I am African American and I see on the news how the police are killing my kind. It kind of hurts me and I want to just change that to make a better world, for not only my community, but for everybody else."

PEER PRESSURE
Jasmin Samuels
and Jayla Samuels

"The school we come from, there are a lot of different kids trying different things to fit in...to the cliques that already exist. But those people [in those cliques] shouldn't decide to be friends with them because of the things they bring in [from home]. It's wrong. They should just accept that person for who they are."

GROWING UP
BLACK IN CHICAGO
Gerald Brown










THE GREATE ESCAPE
Jabarie Barnes

"In order to get along, it's a good thing to embrace other people. So to prevent them through locking them out of your country and making it extremely hard to cross the border struck me as an important social issue."

LIFE CHOICES
Kendall Mensah

"Let's be honest. Teenagers are stupid. They want to drink and hang with the wrong people. But you could hang with the right people, get a good score on the ACT and have a bright future."