One interesting artist form “Art in the age of distribution” was Cory Arcangel. Cory manipulated technology in order to create unique works of art. While reading the article it instanty grabbed my attention when it mentioned Cory’s “Super Mario Clouds” project. Being a gamer myself, who grew up playing Super Mario, I had to find out what it was.

Super Mario in it’s originality

The popular NES game Super Mario consists of a character named Mario, who navigates through different obstacles to obtain some sort of goal. The gamer would navigate the two dimensional character from left to right, avoiding enemies, collecting coins, and jumping over obstacles. In his “Super Mario Clouds”, Corey manipulates the game to create a simple artistic effect. By hacking and modifying the game Arcangel removes everything besides the blue sky and the clouds. Corey does this by manipulating the cartridge disk of the game and installing his own software. What makes this artwork so unique and interesting is it’s simplicity. What seemed like a pointless project, come out to be a unique way of using technology to create a calm, comical, and endless effect. The most important part of this project is the ability to understand and accept new art forms.

“Super Mario Clouds”

Here is a lengthy demonstration of Super Mario Clouds.

The next project that I researched were Brillo Boxes by Andy Warhol. The Brillo Box was a small replica of larger commercial packaging. Andy Warhol created theses small three dimensional boxes using silk screening to decorate wooded figures. This project is important because it made viewers look at commercialism as an art form. The Brillo boxes are almost identical replicas of the original products. What makes these boxes any different or similar to the actual product? This question is to be determined by the viewer. Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes are amazing because by simply copying the design of a product, Warhol created and artwork, which makes the viewer think about commercialism and art.

Andy Warhol’s Brillo box

Warhol and the original Brillo Boxes