Cory Archangel

http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/

Area: Artist Age: 28 Nationality: American Self-confessed nerd Cory Arcangel has created some of the most innovative computer-inspired artworks of the last decade. The NYC-based artist pushed his interest in experimental film and videos into a fascination with making artwork by hacking into Nintendo games, using internet search engines to create online artworks and cut'n'pasting videos into magnificent music mash-ups. His work has been shown at the Whitney, MoMA and PS1, single-handedly pushing internet art into the face of the art world.

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What first attracted you to working with technology?
I was always a bit of a computer nerd, even back when being a nerd sucked!

What do you find interesting about the artistic possiblities of the internet?
The net is actually the medium I feel the most comfortable with. Firstly, I love the idea that once something gets on the net, it erases all the support the artistic context can give you. If you put something on the net that references early minimalism, your primary Internet audience couldn't care less. Also, I like throwing stuff on the net knowing that it will be judged equally against videos of skateboarding dogs and other stuff floating around. The net is total chaos fueled by humour and entertainment. I also like the participatory aspect of the net. I can put a project or some code on the net, and then people can modify it, or make their own stuff out of it, and send it back to me. It is a great medium for using the open source model to screw with the normal definitions of authorship that people expect with art. Also, of course, there is the distribution side of the net. Once a file is out there, it gets copied over and over and basically never disappears because of the p2p structure of the net. I just had some guy email me out of the blue because he had mp3s of my band from eight years ago that even I lost! I took them off the net in 2000. Seven years later I got them back.

How does music influence what you do?
All my art comes from my music education. I went to a music conservatory to study classical guitar. There, I’d have to spend six or seven hours a day practising. I played classical guitar seriously for many years and eventually this idea of 'craft' burned into my thinking. Think of it: a guitar only has six strings, and I had to spend that much time with it just to get OK at it. So now that I am an artist, this sense of craft or duty bleeds into everything I do. Basically, I try to limit my possibilities with whatever medium I am working with, in the hopes I can actually make a clear statement. This neurosis is a direct result of my music education. It’s absolutely crippling.  

Can you tell me about the Super Mario movie you made?
The Super Mario movie was a fifteen-minute movie which was programmed onto a old Super Mario Brothers Nintendo cartridge that was hotwired. When you put the cartridge into the Nintendo, instead of the game coming up, it plays a narrative movie. We started with a script, then I programmed a music and animation engine that ran on the Nintendo. Kinda like an "iMovie" for the Nintendo - a little program that allowed me to easily movie characters and backgrounds around. Then I taught Paperrad how to make music for it, how to make backgrounds, and how to do the text. Then I took all the stuff they made and cobbled it together into an animation on the Nintendo. Then there was a bunch of back and forth, and after about 3 months or so, we finally got to a 15 minutes we liked.

The movie itself was a story about how Mario one day finds himself in a game which is crumbling. It’s kinda an existential crisis and he has to figure out why its happening. So he goes on a type of journey through all these messed up worlds where all the graphics are falling apart to find the answer.  

What do you like visually about old school computer game graphics?
In a way I hate making art on computers because computers or the associated tools always influence the aesthetic, and it isn't always easy to know when this is happening. Like if you make something on Photoshop, it might look good now, but in ten years you will look at it, and it will look like something you made on Photoshop in 2007. It's embarrassing. So with the old graphics, I can avoid this, cause people already know I know its wack. Then at least we are all on the same page. And with media art, once everyone is on the same page, only then can the project be successful.  

What are your influences and inspirations?
Gary Larson's ‘The Far Side’, Crosby Stills Nash and Young and Tony Conrad. 

Can you tell me what you're going to be showing at Max Wigram in London this summer?
I have this new series of ‘plasma burn’ pieces. I get a nice brand new plasma monitor, and then make a video, which just has all the title card info for the piece in white text on a black background. I then play this on the plasma. Since the image never moves, it will slowly burn into the screen as long as the piece is on, because plasma monitors have a defect where images will burn into the screen if they are left on too long.
 
Cory Arcangel will be featured in a group show at Max Wigram, London 13 July to Sept 1.
Fellow Beige Records’ artist Paul B Davis will show at Seventeen Gallery, May 30 to June 23.

Interview by Fran Gavin.