At first, in Thomas Apperley and Jussi Parikka’s “Platform Studies’ Epistemic Threshhold,” the argument towards applying a media archaeological approach to platform studies did not become clear for me until I breached its end when the authors discussed Corey Arcangel’s piece Super Mario Clouds (363). I have been familiar with this artist previously, but Apperley and Parikka’s pointing towards the work’s significance as an artistic practice “inspired by media archaeology” was highly effective, as I had only encountered discussions on his work as “Post-Internet Art,” a nondescript attribution once compared to Apperley and Parikka’s interpretation. Mostly, I felt the insight and clarity upon interpreting these media archaeological inspired artistic practices “illustrate this drive to search for the seams and the cracks that contradict the orderliness of the black box and test the platform’s limits” (363).
Moreover, Apperley and Parikka’s work also call into question the nature of “creativity” and “play” as they figure throughout dominant methodological interpretations of “platform studies.” Creativity also figures in Audrey Anable’s writing as well, in which platforms become the "'underlying computing systems' of culture and creativity" (136). I was wondering if it was possible in class to parse out and unpack a bit more how each author approaches the notion of creativity and play with platforms, as it has not only recurred in this week but also in the recommended Parikka reading from a couple weeks ago.
https://coryarcangel.com/
Blog post 3/10 (Hyejoo)
ReplyDeleteHey Marisol, I was also intrigued by Apperley and Parikka's esteem of failure as a "critical appreciation" (359). Appreciate you linking Corey Arcangel's work. It also made me think about this game called "Doki Doki Literature Club!" which is a horror game that breaks the fourth wall by crashing the game client, suddenly deleting game software files, and requiring the player to move around actual files on their computer to continue the game. I don't know if this counts as a real "failure" in that the game itself is quite popular and the crashes and "cracks" are coded into the game, but it's nonetheless an aesthetic of failure that makes for an interesting affective experience. FYI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doki_Doki_Literature_Club!