GAME ART: MARK SCHOENING'S "THE RED TULIP GLITCH MEMORIAL" IN ANIMAL CROSSING (2020)

Mark Schoening
The Red Tulip Glitch Memorial
April 23 - 29, 2020

On March 27, 2020, Julia Maiuri, a first year MFA student at the University of Minnesota has launched the Museum of Contemporary Art Kittengale within Animal Crossing: New Horizon, a social simulation video game for the Nintendo Switch that allows players to hang out, connect, and interact in a fantasy world. Programming is facilitated by Julia Maiuri and Joolz, her avatar within the game. Working on this platform, Maiuri pushes the limitations of the game to curate weekly virtual exhibitions by real life artists. Among the first exhibitions held in the newly launched gallery space is Mark Schoening's The Red Tulip Glitch Memorial. Schoening is an artist and also co-founder of Porch Gallery in south Minneapolis. Schoening created the artwork - two portraits of red tulips facing each other on opposite walls, and, on the third wall, white letters on a red background spell out “never again" - using Photoshop, and then uploaded the work through acpatterns.com, which creates a QR code that the game can read. The artwork and the message reference a glitch that occurred fifteen years ago, in the “Animal Crossing: Wild World (2006)." The glitch froze thousands of players, forcing them to remain isolated in their houses for months, separated from one another. There's a fil rouge connecting the previous lockdown with the current situation. Screenshots of the show can be seen on Maiuri's Instagram account @moca.kittengale.

: Mark Schoening's The Red Tulip Glitch Memorial (all images courtesy of the artists)