Today’s game is Mario Galaxy. I decided today was my day to be productive for once, and I dumped all my Wii games ROMs for safe keeping, along with all my Blu-Ray discs. While I was testing the Wii Games to see if they worked, I got distracted by Mario Galaxy.
I chose this screenshot specifically because it shows off the water. Mario Galaxy is one of those games that has gorgeous water.
This visual is uniquely soothing, reminds me of artist Cory Arcangel, who did an art piece with just the Super Mario clouds drifting on a television screen - hacking into the NES cartridge and getting rid of everything else - to much admiration.
I remember reading an art journalist applauding the Impressionistic feel of the thing, the way Arcangel brought a background object to the fore, and in the process transformed it into something new entirely, with a surprising character and strength of presence.
Here’s a Whitney Museum link to the work.
That’s really fucking clever. As a Programming major I love seeing Art and Programming combined like this. It’s amazing to me