Wednesday 23 May 2012

Surrealism and video games

Made by Kornhaber Brown and hosted by Mike Rugnetta, this is the first episode of a PBS series called New Idea Channel

This episode examines surrealism in the context of a discussion about the salient features of the Super Mario Brothers. They make a case for Mario's inclusion into a canon of art wider than "Video Game".

You know surrealism, right? 

Stuff like this:


Super Mario Brothers the world's greatest piece of surrealist art? Watch this.

    YouTube   

3 comments:

Kathy said...

That's an original notion and I found the video entertaining, but I think the link is superficial. Dadaism is not like nihilism, but was a genuine shunning of reality in rebellion against a society which had spawned an atrocious war. Surrealism grew on the roots of dadaism because people were intrigued by the quirks of the mind which had been exposed and sought genuine meaning in surprises created by surrealist artists. You couldn't have SuperMario Brothers without surrealism having led to an acceptance of strange juxtapositions but I would have said the purpose of surrealists is to maintain the conceit of being serious artists whereas the purpose of video games is to entertain with fun ideas. Both surrealist artists and video game creators intrigue their audiences with what is described in the video as non-sequiteurs, but with different aims. Although if you want to be cynical about it, both groups essentially have the same goal: to make money from their creations.

Kathy said...

I forgot to say thank you, Henry, your posts are fascinating and always make one think.

Anonymous said...

I'm not really an art lover, but I do like the Salvador Dali painting with the melting clocks!
Thanks Henry.