videoludica. game culture 

About the book: "Twenty-five years ago, the first 8-bit Nintendo console went on the market; now most home computers have hundreds of thousands of times that power. Arcangel, who is 27 this year, is a full-fledged member of the generation that grew up on home video games. With Beige, a collective of fellow programmers, he has embarked on a hacker's nostalgia trip: his return to Super Mario Brothers removes all of the action to leave a landscape of blue sky and puffy clouds; Shoot Andy Warhol is a working video game in which viewers gain points for hitting Warhol and lose them by accidentally shooting Colonel Sanders, the Pope or Flavor Flav instead. Arcangel appropriates and rewrites electronic history, and his accessible sites and published code offer viewers tools for action in a reality that is less and less tangible, through a field that has come to dominate our daily lives. Arcangel's work was shown at the 2004 Whitney Biennial"

About the artist: "Born in Buffalo, Cory Arcangel soon moved to New York, where he studied classical guitar at the Oberlin. The Beige group was formed around 1997, when he was at music school, and is the 'collective' background for all his subsequent artistic activities. Founded by Cory Arcangel, Joe Beuckman, Joe Bonn, and Paul B. Davis, this group of programmers was also a musical band and a small record label. Their first project of a certain scale was The 8-bit Construction Set (1998-200), which was the name of their band and of the record they released on the Beige Records label. In fact, it was a 'battle record' comprising music, software and video; one side was recorded - and can be read - using a Commodore 64, the other using an Atari platform. The 8-bit Construction Set reflects the predilection for low-tech and lo-fi aesthetics that is characteristic of a lot of European Net Art; but it also echoes the advent of 8-bit music, which was then emerging in both the US and Europe, with old platforms being used as musical instruments." (Domenico Quaranta)

The book was published in September 2005 by Jrp/Ringier. Read more about the book

Link: Order a copy of Cory Arcangel: BEIGE