The exhibition was curated by critical game theorist Corrado Morgana in partnership with Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow Furtherfield’s HTTP Gallery. It included works by Axel Stockburger, TheGhost, Corrado Morgana, Ziga Hajdukovic, Progress Quest and JODI. The exhibition was accompanied by a short publication with a keynote text by Axel Stockburger.

Zero Gamer positions itself as a meaningful interruption of the playing process in order to facilitate a platform for reflection. The works addressed different aspects of digital gameplay, although they did not take the form of playable games themselves. Rather, their purpose was to allow the audience to engage with different crucial issues arising from the hugely complex field of games and gaming but without actually playing. The artists employed different strategies to enable this, ranging from intervening with mechanics such as artificial intelligence and in-game physics to removing game tokens and hazards enabling discussions about the meaning of player engagement. Zero Gamer does not stand for a return to more traditional forms of aesthetic production. On the contrary, it points in the opposite direction, placing itself as the necessary interstice between gaming cycles.

Zero Gamer was first presented by HTTP Gallery at the London Games Festival Fringe in 2007. The remixed exhibition, Zero Gamer (GOLD) was on show at HTTP Gallery between 2-18 November 2007.

Zero Gamer text by Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett (HTTP/Furtherfield.org) and Corrado Morgana 2007.
On Archive.org – Wayback machine – https://bit.ly/3ya6nqe

List of artworks

Mario Trilogy: Mario battle no.1 (2000), Mario is drowning (2004) and Mario is doing time (2004). by Myfanwy Ashmore

Max Payne Cheats Only (2004). By JODI

Boys in the Hood (2006). By Axel Stockburger

CarnageHug (2007). By Corrado Morgana

Progress Quest (2004). By Eric Fredricksen

1d Tetris (2002). By Ziga Hajdukovic

Youtube Showreel
Breen and Alyx by Wo0Yay
Launch Line by TheGhost
Real Action Tetris by Mega64
Hamster Video Game uploaded by Jason the Vid Guy
Tetris The Absolute The Grandmaster2 Plus Death Mode uploaded by madeofwin
Space Invaders in Real Life uploaded by ChugaTheMonkey
Self-playing Mario by Diagram
TAS video – Megaman 3,4,5 and 6 by Angerfist and Baxter

Exhibition Images