Big Joy Stick, Big Fun at the Beall Center

The Grand Text Auto show, currently at the Beall Center for Art and Technology, is a tactile experience running the gamut from freewheeling play to somber contemplation, with something to amuse a viewer in any mood. This is no run-of-the-mill gallery experience; as always, the Beall eschews the all-too-common distance between the audience and the artwork. There is plenty to see, touch and play with in this exhibit, which actually grew out of an online artists’ blog GrandTextAuto.org.
The title of the show/blog is a playful twist on one of the most popular video game series ever, Grand Theft Auto. Anyone expecting guns and violence because of this title might be disappointed, but any student who is interested in the future of video games, digital literature or technology or their impact on culture will be pleasantly surprised.
The show opens whimsically with ‘giantJoystick,’ a six-foot-tall joystick connected to an Atari game system. Putting one’s whole body into moving the joystick around