The Art (?) of Video Games

Yes, visual art friends, it's true: next year, the Smithsonian American Art Museum is hosting an exhibition featuring video games.  The Art of Video Games, as it has been titled by curator Chris Melissinos, even features the opportunity for YOU to vote as to the content.  

According to the Museum's website, the exhibition will feature still and moving images of some eighty games, video interviews of artists (programmers) and even several interactive examples including such stand-bys (even I know these) as Pac-Man and Super Mario Brothers (italics courtesy of the Smithsonian's site).

If you haven't already, before you click the link to vote for PONG, you might have asked yourself, who is Melissinos? (I did, ask myself that is, not vote.)  Erik Silk, an intern for "All Things Digital" at the Wall Street Journal, describes Melissinos not only as having begun his gaming career playing them at age twelve, but also as being a programmer with Sun Microsystems for seventeen years and Chief Gaming Officer there for the past twelve.  All of which, along with Melissinos's reputation in the gaming community, apparently led the Smithsonian to invite him to curate the upcoming exhibit.

While I find myself questioning whether Melissinos will prove to be a good "curator", I am likewise doing a double-take at part of the title of Silk's article:  "...Pong Equals Picasso".  What???  Or perhaps more importantly, what do you think, friends?