Games + Graffiti: New York's First 'Street Art Arcade'
Posted by Joshua_Kopstein on Tuesday, May 11, 2010
In New York City, things have never been quite the same ever since the downfall of the video arcade. By the time home console systems had become the norm in the mid/late-90’s, most of New York’s arcades were facing their final days, signaled ominously by the dying of neon lights and hushed whispers of a once-deafening din of blips and blops.
The spirit of those times is far from forgotten however, and the essence of the arcade era now finds itself born anew in the heart of the Lower East Side. But you’re not going to find Street Fighter, Pac-Man or other old standbys in this arcade — ‘Deluxx Fluxx’ is a new exhibit from renowned Brooklyn street art collective Faile and collaborative artist Bast where graffiti and street art are transmogrified into interactive arcade games.
Originally exhibited in London earlier this year, a formerly abandoned storefront on Allen Street in NYC is now pulsing with bright lights and filled to the brim with arcade cabinets displaying Faile and Bast’s works as interactive games designed by local studio Adapted.
Even the cabinets themselves are papered over with vibrant posters, graffiti and other works of art; a throwback to the days when arcades and punk rock culture ruled the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller of Faile say that Deluxx Fluxx was devised as a new way to display their work apart from the brick walls, tunnels and other urban canvasses on which street art is typically seen.
Don’t bother bringing a pocketful of quarters: All of the games here are free to play, and the exhibit will remain open through May 27th.
[Video from The New York Times]Filed under:
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