Game Changers: Another Way to Play

Fun exhibition at Somerset House looking at the history of three games billiards, mazes and chess.

There was a room devoted to each game with nice illustrations of its history and new versions by contemporary designers.  It showed how games evolve as people invent new rules and misremember old ones. It saw games as the history of people trying out ideas.

I was most taken with the billiards room. As well as some lovely pictures of how it developed from a game based on grass through snooker and pinball machines. It’s origins on grass are still seen in the green baize. There was a great snooker table with one raised leg so you had to pot uphill to reach that pocket. I became addicted to an electronic pin ball machine where the ‘ball’ drew a pattern as it flew round the board and created great splashes of colour as it hit the edges.

The chess room would have been more fun if I’d gone with someone else as it included a number of boards down the middle of the room with new variations of the game. There were some digital versions too but these were all being used. The maze room was the least interesting as the interactive elements weren’t so much fun but there were nice pictures of garden mazes.

Closes on 7 May 2017

 

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