The National Library of Estonia is hosting an exhibition "Do something useful instead!" curated by the video game museum LVLup!
Since all exhibitions are currently closed, the library and LVLup! organized a virtual tour of the exhibiton on Monday. The virtual tour marked the opening of the new exhibition, taking a look at the heritage of gaming and video games in Estonia. LVLup! creators Camille Laurelli and Andrejs Rusinovskis spoke at the event, along with Sigrid Liira and Argo Kerb.
Plenty of retro gaming consoles and other unique electronics from the 1970s to 2000s were shown at the tour, with curators Camille Laurelli and Andrejs Rusinovskis saying that the exhibition will pay special attention to the devices and games that changed Estonians' visions of games.
Gaming already existed in the Soviet Union, but it gathered popularity in Estonia as a medium and culture phenomenon in the second half of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. That is also the reason why Estonia's history with video games is somewhat different to that of western countries.
According to the exhibition curators, video games were initially not seen as part of culture and art, but rather as entertainment for children. "Do something useful instead!" was said to multiple generations of gamers across the world. By now, the gaming industry has grown to something that is competitive with music and cinema and gaming is an integral part of modern culture, sports and even work, not to mention entertainment.
As the average age of gamers in Estonia is nearing 40 years, the exhibition will also take adults back to their childhood and will introduce retro consoles from the 70s to the children of today.
"Mario Bros., Street Fighter II, Brick Game, Pac-Man, Road Race, Circus, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tale spin, Flipper or that handheld game console with a silver frame, featuring Indians – if these names ring a bell and bring back good memories, then we strongly recommend to take part in the tour and click 'going'," the museum stated.
The exhibition, situated on the fifth floor of the National Library of Estonia, will open for the public as soon as the national restrictions are lifted.
Additional information: press@nlib.ee
