Sorry I Haven’t posted

Well, not really. See previous entries for why this blog will be intermittent at best. However I recently learnt about Cory Arcangel’s automated blog I’m sorry I haven’t posted, which aggregates blog posts with ‘I’m sorry I haven’t posted’ in them. No such thing as bad publicity.

Cory Arcangel is an interesting artist. His most famous piece is Super Mario Clouds, which consists of Super Mario with all elements removed except the gently moving pixelated clouds behind the game. Recently, he had an exhibition at the Barbican where you could play antiquated bowling games on consoles – but where all the games were rigged so your ball would always roll into the gutter.

Modern art comes in for a lot of stick for its supposed inutility. By the definition of a lot of people, art seems to be defined as something with a beautiful woman, a bit of nature or a ship painted on it. Stuff that you can nail to a wall or screen print on a plate.

However, that kind of art is frequently rather dull. Very interesting when you know what to look for, but otherwise really rather bland. Whereas this sort of performative art is lively, direct and visceral. A gallery full of obsolete electronics forcing their users to waste their time generating guaranteed failure seems like a brilliant metaphor for most of the time I spend hooked up to a computer. It leaves me thinking that every time I play a game, my real score is 0.

This kind of art, which has more in common with a whimsical practical joke than with anything that involves organising paint, seems much more in tune with the way I see the world. I suspect I’m not alone. If you wanted to engage with a classroom full of 14 year olds, wouldn’t an art teacher have a much easier time focusing on something that is a) fun and b) relates to the familiar?