How Museums Embraced Digital Art
London’s V&A is determined to make the case for games as important design objects
By Edwin Heathcote
Five years ago London’s Victoria and Albert Museum acquired the “Liberator”. It is a pasty-looking 3D-printed gun designed by the Texan libertarian Cody Wilson. The version put on display, however, dismantled and displayed in a vitrine, is a copy printed in London. It is not an original but, of course, that is the point. This is a weapon that could be printed by anyone, anywhere, with access to a widely available 3D printer. It would be undetectable by an airport security X-ray, and all that is needed to make it functional is a single steel off-the-shelf nail and a bullet.
The acquisition sparked a fierce controversy. Wilson was described in headlines as the most dangerous man on the internet. It brought accusations of “clickbait collecting”: it was, some argued, the acquisition of a gimmick whose impact had yet to be assessed, whose design was poor and which represented a dangerous future.
The then curator of architecture and design, Kieran Long, argued that the gun does precisely what the museum has always sought to do: to bring together contemporary culture, concerns, conflicts and politics, and to show the impact of new technology on design. He pointed…
