On Exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery: The Art of Game Creation

The Speed of Thinking, is an exhibition spawned from a mobile game about global trade and the collaborative artwork used in the creation of the game. The art team, Joelle Dietrick and Owen Mundy will also showcase works that portray architecture as fragments affected by economic and communications systems.

The game The Speed of Thinking is about global trade systems so complex that they feel out of control. If Tetris is about the innate joy of putting objects in order, this game oscillates between the bliss and abyss of automation. The game focuses on a teetering balance of both childlike amusement and lingering chaos, which is reflected in the artwork on display.

The opening reception will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 13 from 5-7 p.m. during which a discussion panel with the artists and academic experts will take place at 6 p.m. The exhibition will run through Sunday, March 24. The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

The exhibition also features Falling Containers, a study in preparation for The Speed of Thinking, and Product Monsters, animated products from the shipping containers presented as gifs. All the works together create a sense of both chaos and wonderment as the projections surround the viewer.  

Dietrick and Mundy are a collaborative art team based in North Carolina. Dietrick’s artwork has been displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville; Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California; Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago; MCA San Diego; Long March Space Beijing; ARC Gallery Chicago; Soho20 New York; and as permanent public artworks at the University of North Texas and the City of Tallahassee, Florida.

Mundy’s work is best known for his online interventions that have been reviewed by over 300 international news media outlets including The New York Times, National Public Radio, and Wired UK. Recent exhibitions of his work include solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, and Rotterdam. His work is in many books about internet art, including Art and the Internet (2014) and Thinking Through Digital Media: Transnational Environments and Locative Places (2015).

A discussion panel will feature the artist Joelle Dietrick and include Frank Lee, PhD, a professor in the Westphal College of Media Art & Design and director of the Entrepreneurial Game Studio at Drexel; Daniel Aldana Cohen, PhD, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, who focuses on climate change, global flows and urbanism, mapping, and data visualization; and Mimi Sheller, PhD, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy at Drexel. The panel will discuss work in public art at the intersection of climate change, global trade and gaming. 

A prototype of the game is available for download, here.

To learn more about the exhibition visit here.