Etiquetas

Art in the 21st century is shaped around computer technologies. The artist now produces in the digital environment that has entered all areas of our lives, expresses himself through software, and reveals his works with new media. Although new media is mixed with video art, it is a completely different field that should be evaluated separately from it. Since it is an interdisciplinary field of production due to the materials and techniques used, it stands apart from the contemporary art framework. The diversity of the production process and structure has become almost unlimited in line with today’s possibilities and offers us new areas of thought and questioning.

I would like to exemplify the diversity of the production process with one of my favorite works, Super Mario Clouds, which is based on the Super Mario game produced for Nintendo’s NES game console. Cory Archangel hacked and modified the game so that the only remaining image is clouds in a blue sky. Super Mario, the main character, will guide the player through a maze and the original jump and run; elements that contributed to the game’s storytelling, such as obstacles, landscapes, and opposing players, were now gone.

Those who know the game of Super Mario can visualize this work in their minds as follows: On a blank background, only clouds appear in a cartoon-like sky. The work was produced based on the manipulation of hardware and software. Cory Archangel opened the cartridge in which the game was stored and replaced the Nintendo graphics chip with one that erased the program he had written.