​Tate museum reimagines works of art as Minecraft maps

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Sean Buckley
November 29th, 2014
In this article: art, Minecraft, tate, tatemesuem, videogames
​Tate museum reimagines works of art as Minecraft maps

When we talk about the idea of video games as art, we typically mean as art unto itself -- but what if a video game was a companion piece to an existing piece of art? And what if that work was over 100 years old? That's the idea behind Tate Worlds, a free modern art-inspired Minecraft map pack. The project uses Mojang's endless open-world game as a vehicle for exploring paintings and sculptures in the Tate collection, pitting players against challenges with thematic ties to specific works of art.

A map inspired by André Derain's "The Pool of London," for instance, tasks players with scouring a brightly colored cityscape to help Derian find his lost pigments. "Soul of the Souless City," on the other hand, gives players a virtual tour of the landmarks Christopher Nevinson might have seen while painting the abstract portrait of 1920's New York. Both of the above maps are available right now, and four more art-inspired landscapes will be available next year. Best of all, the entire project is being released for free -- assuming you already own a PC or Mac copy of Minecraft, of course.

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