June 4–July 10, 2026

Guest curators: Catherine L. Hansen, boshi’s place

Artists: Aging in Play (Hao Jie Sim, Xiaolan Fu, Kelsey Zhang), boshi’s place (eva, fiona, flan, ali, danny, ty, annie, hatim, jude, mut, walid, fran, beau, jen, d, phil, jonny, darwin, sewon, and joey), Catherine L. Hansen with Lee Carlisle, Chenren Li, and Edwin Zheng, Gustavo Ceci Guimarães (a.k.a. mut), Hatim Benhsain, Joey Schutz, pondlife .

This exhibition explores games as digital and physical spaces of collective attention. It centers on the current landscape of independent gaming communities represented by co-curators who create sites and practices for critical play in the digital world: Boshi’s Place (Brooklyn), an artist collective showcasing experimental games, and researcher and educator Catherine L. Hansen (Tokyo), who leads a participatory curriculum on gaming culture at the University of Tokyo. We also introduce Aging in Play (New York), a group that co-designs game sets with older adults using accessible, everyday materials as a form of community care. Play is recontextualized through alternative and exploratory modes of interactivity, beyond addictive and repetitive gameplay loops designed to keep players' attention captive. Extractive mechanisms parallel to “dark flow,” described by anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll in her study on slot machines, is countered by renewed agency over lived experience—whether it be through narratives unfolding in non-competitive, non-progressive levels or incisive parodies on the immediate action-reward logic of commercial games. 

Public Programs

• Opening reception: Thursday June 4, 6:30-8:30pm 

• Panel talk with Catherine L. Hansen | Sunday June 14, 6:30-8:00pm 

• Roundup with Boshi’s Place | Saturday June 20, 5:30-7:30pm

• Gamemaking workshop with Aging in Play | Sunday June 28, 3-5pm