[ISEA2008] Artist Talk: Kael Greco – MINUS WORLDS, LOST LEVELS AND GLITCHSCAPES

Artist Statement

This proposal is submitted in the request of obtaining an artist presentation entitled: Minus Worlds, Lost Levels, and Glitchscapes; Negative Space and Code.

The presentation will introduce a series of digital works (images, animations and interactive content) consisting of levels, structures, and spaces generated algorithmically by custom-built software running on various NES and SNES video game cartridges.

The work aims to explore the negative space of code; activating, reorganizing and reinterpreting the invisible datascapes embedded within the game’s ROM. These information geographies exist as undiscovered, unintentional wastelands, operating at the periphery of programmed terrain- glitch spaces exposed through the performance of inverted logic.

The software was built in Java on Mac OS X. It operates on the Read-Only-Memory of various NES and SNES video game cartridges. It reprocesses the image content of the games to create new levels/structures not programmed by the original game developers. These regenerated spaces are displayed as images, animations and even playable levels.

  • Kael Greco