Prof. Dr. Benjamin Beil teaches media studies and in digital cultures at the Department for Media Culture and Theatre at the University of Cologne. His research interests focus on game studies, inter- and transmediality, and digital media in museums. He is the principal investigator of the GRF-funded project “Videogames in the Museum” and has co-curated several exhibitions, including “Im Spielrausch” (Museum of Applied Arts Cologne, 2017/18) and “Games-Geschichte(n)” (University and City Library of Cologne, 2025; Toy Museum Nuremberg, 2026/27).
Isabelle Hamm, M.A., is a research associate in the GRF-funded project “Videogames in the Museum” at the Department for Media Culture and Theatre at the University of Cologne. Her research focuses on museology, digital art mediation, AI, media art, and the intersections of these fields with video games. She is currently pursuing a doctorate on virtual exhibitions. She also works as an art mediator at the 61st Venice Biennale. As a co-curator, she has been involved in several exhibitions, including “Captured in Code – Virtuelle Fotografie” (Depot Dortmund, 2026) and “Games-Geschichte(n)” (University and City Library of Cologne, 2025; Toy Museum Nuremberg, 2026/27).
Playful Cooperations: Video Games, Museums, and the End of the World
FROG 2026 – Talk
In the postapocalyptic world of the action-adventure game Horizon Forbidden West (2022), players encounter – rather surprisingly – a museum: a collection of paintings and sculptures by Old Masters, that Tilda van der Meer, one of the game’s antagonists, rescued from the collapse of the world. The artworks are not merely decorative props; as part of a tour through the virtual exhibition, players can engage in conversation with Tilda about Rembrandt’s Night Watch (1642), Vermeer’s Woman Reading a Letter in Blue (c. 1663), and other objects on display. Moreover, beyond the game world, paratextual materials reveal a collaboration between the Dutch game developer Guerrilla Games and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, whose collection provided the artworks exhibited in the game. In a promotional video, the game developers and the museum curators discuss the selection of the artworks and their significance to the game’s story. Additionally, visitors of the Rijksmuseum can experience the artworks in their ‘original form’ as part of the Forbidden West Tour.
The talk seeks to take a critical look at the collaboration between museums and game developers by comparing the ‘virtual’ and the ‘real’ Horizon museum tours. Is this collaboration more than a marketing campaign? What happens when the Old Masters clash with the relatively young art of video games? Is there an interplay between the virtual and the real-world artworks? Do players learn something about art (in a video game) or about video games (in a museum)?
Literature:
Beil, Benjamin (forthcoming 2026): Vom Spielplatz zum Metamuseum. Über das Spielen in Ausstel-lungen und das Ausstellen in Spielen. In: Bojahr, Philipp et al. (eds.): Spielräume: Museen und Games als Medien der Welterzeugung. Bielefeld: transcript.
Hamm, Isabelle (forthcoming 2026): Ausstellen im Computerspiel. Vom kuratorischen Eingriff bis zur künstlerischen Aneignung. In: Bojahr, Philipp et al. (eds.): Spielräume: Museen und Games als Medien der Welterzeugung. Bielefeld: transcript.