![]() How much could you take out and still recognize the original game? If you were to hack into this-or your favorite video game-what would you take out? The heroes? The prizes? The challenges? Now, just the pixilated clouds scroll across, slowly, quietly. To make this installation, Cory Arcangel hacked into the version of Super Mario Brothers he played when he was a kid and took out everything except the background. Narrator: Have you ever played a video game? What about Super Mario Brothers? If so, did it look like this? Probably not! For one thing, there's no Mario in this version. What might be viewed as nostalgia for the popular entertainments of an earlier era depends, in fact, on a rigorous conceptual approach to computer hard- and software as well as a refusal to participate in contemporary culture’s lightning-fast cycle of technological turnover. ![]() On a formal level, the project is reminiscent of paintings that push representation toward abstraction: how many elements can be removed before the ability to discern the source is lost? Arcangel, who was trained in classical music, considers computers and video game consoles his instruments, and insists on mastering them prior to creative exploration he will often learn a new programming language in order to develop a work. By tweaking the game’s code, the artist erased all of the sound and visual elements except the iconic scrolling clouds. For this video installation, Cory Arcangel “hacked” a cartridge of Super Mario Brothers, the original version of the blockbuster Nintendo video game released in the United States in 1985. ![]()
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