Soon out of college, Arcangel shared the original Super Mario Clouds video and code on his website in 2002. As originally designed, the work was meant for sharing rather than exhibition.[2] Cognizant that he could not display in galleries, it was Arcangel's first work for the Internet and was intended for Internet virality. The artist was more interested in sharing how the modification was done than in the final product's aesthetics. Its Internet presence led to offers to show the work in real life.[4]
The next year, Arcangel displayed the work as a multi-channel video installation at Team Gallery in New York, with the modified Nintendo Entertainment System console in view. He exhibited the same set up the following year at the 2004 Whitney Biennial.[2] One of the work's five editions is in the Whitney Museum collection.[5]
In 2005, Arcangel created The Making of Super Mario Clouds as an instruction manual and video. He published the code in zine-style publications with a Creative Capital grant.[6]
Reception and legacy
The artist in his studio, 2006
Super Mario Clouds is among Cory Arcangel's best known works.[1] Its presence at the 2004 Whitney Biennial heralded the arrival of new media artists with digital native backgrounds in the professional art world.[2] It was not the first work to attempt this concept, as Myfanwy Ashmore had modified and displayed Super Mario works several years prior.[7] Despite the broad public interest his work received at this time, critics continued to be divided in opinion on Arcangel's work for many years.[8]
The installation is intentionally underwhelming. In invoking and stripping a popular cultural touchstone, the work invokes melancholy for those familiar with the Super Mario Bros. original.[9]
Cornell, Lauren; Halter, Ed, eds. (2015). Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century. Critical Anthologies in Art and Culture. MIT Press. ISBN978-0-262-02926-1.
Dekker, Annet (2014). "A Fun Aesthetic and Art". In Goriunova, Olga (ed.). Fun and Software: Exploring Pleasure, Paradox and Pain in Computing. Bloomsbury Academic. pp.233–252. ISBN978-1-62356-094-2.
Gygax, Raphael (2005). "Minimalize Mario: The Work of Cory Arcangel". Cory Arcangel: Beige. Zurich: Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst: JRP-Ringier. ISBN978-3-905701-15-9. OCLC64303408.
Lohmeyer, Eddie (2021). "A (Scroll) Down Memory Lane: Nonplay and the Vitality of 8-bit Engines in Cory Arcangel's Super Mario Bros. Mods". Unstable Aesthetics: Game Engines and the Strangeness of Modding. Bloomsbury Academic. pp.25–58. ISBN978-1-5013-6490-7.
