Visual Arts review: The KNOWMAD Confederacy at the List

The KNOWMAD Confederacy at the List

Dreamt up by the politically minded artists' collaborative known as the KNOWMAD Confederacy, "Map: Motion + Action = Place" is an installation work in the guise of an interactive arcade video game which purports to investigate "changing notions of national identity and belonging." True to arcade video game form, a steering wheel and acceleration pedal enable the visitor to navigate a desert landscape dotted by "nomadic tents" from which he must procure "sacred fruits" to save the KNOWMAD society. Based on Middle Eastern rug motifs, the three-dimensional interiors of the 36 tents are visually engaging and well-executed. Somewhere, there is a connection between the desert and virtual reality as analogous spaces of transit, a recognition of "fragile and mutable political boundaries which are being torn by ethnic, religious and sectarian strife; perforated via economic and cultural globalism; and reconceived by technology..." Hip and cerebral as these meditations may be, they are largely lost on the art viewer-cum-game player absorbed simply in scoring maximum pointage. Still, though the piece is less avant-garde than its high-brow title might suggest, it will not fail to amuse campy individuals who prefer to take their art less seriously sometimes.

"Map: Motion + Action = Place" is at the List Center on the MIT campus at 20 Ames St., near the Kendall Square station. The installation closes April 9. Hours are 12 to 6 p.m. daily, 12 to 8 p.m. on Fridays and closed Mondays. Admission is free; you don't even need quarters.