Description
An archive consisting of approximately 500 items from Herbert and Mercedes Matter, including production files and original
artwork, manuscript material, correspondence, film and magnetic media, photographs, books, and printed matter.
Background
R. Buckminster Fuller conceived the World Game as an interactive role-playing experience that would teach participants to
organize, revitalize and distribute depleted world resources. Relying on computers to provide raw data, players work non-competitively
to allocate the earth?s natural capital worldwide, scoring points through efficient management. If cooperation degenerates
into competition, the first step towards war, the game is lost. This archive documents the preparations for and execution
of the inaugural World Game at the New York Studio School in 1969, which became a prototypical rehearsal for its 1971 appearance
at the University of Southern Illinois. Born in Engelberg, Switzerland, Herbert Matter is best known for his international
contributions in photography, photomontage, and graphic design work. Matter was also a filmmaker, exhibition designer, and
professor. He came to the United States in 1936 and began work as a freelance photographer for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines
and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and created displays for the Swiss and Corning Glass Pavilions for the 1939 World's
Fair. He also directed, filmed, and edited Works of Calder in 1950 for the Museum of Modern Art, the first color film to show
Alexander Calder's sculptures. While maintaining countless assignments, he introduced the first photography classes offered
at Yale University where he taught until 1976. In 1943, Herbert married Mercedes de Cordoba and in 1964 she founded the New
York Studio School of Painting and Sculpture (the Studio School). When the 1967 Montreal World?s Fair rejected R. Buckminster
Fuller?s proposal to have the World Game played at the fair, Herbert and Mercedes offered to host him at the Studio School
and offered the school?s student population for the inaugural World Game. Other related collections at Stanford University
researchers should investigate would be the R. Buckminster Fuller papers (M1090) and the Herbert Matter papers (M1446).
Restrictions
Property rights reside with the repository. Copyright in papers created by Herbert and Mercedes Matter is held by the Matter
estate and shall be administered by their designee. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors,
or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Head
of Special Collections before publishing quotations from materials in the collection.Literary rights reside with the creators
of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian
of the Dept. of Special Collections.