Cory Arcangel
Encyclopedia
Cory Arcangel is a Brooklyn
, New York
artist who makes work in many different media, including drawing, music, video, performance,, and video game modifications, for which he is perhaps best known. Arcangel often uses the artistic strategy of appropriation
, creatively re-using existing materials such as dancing stands, Photoshop gradients, and YouTube videos to create new works of art. His work explores the relationship between technology and culture.
, New York and attended the Nichols School
, where he was a star lacrosse
goalie. He was exposed to experimental video artists such as Nam June Paik
through the Squeaky Wheel Buffalo Media Arts Center
. He was very interested in guitar, practicing eight hours a day by the time he turned seventeen. He studied classical guitar at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music
, but later switched to major in the technology of music. At Oberlin, Arcangel met Jacob Ciocci and Paul B. Davis. Arcangel and Davis formed the Beige Programming Ensemble in 2000, and released a record of 8-bit
music entitled "The 8-Bit Construction Set".
Arcangel credits Pauline Oliveros
, with whom he took a composition class, for his "fascination with finding artistic inspiration in unlikely machines". He describes a piece in which she connected sine wave
oscillators to loudspeaker
s and output the exact audio frequency
as the resonance
of the concert hall, creating an increasingly louder sound. This, he says, was what made it "click" for him. Arcangel counts many among his influences, including Steve Reich
, Tiger Woods
, and Weekend at Bernie's
.
game cartridge hacks and reworkings of obsolete computer systems of the 1970s and 80s. One example is Super Mario Clouds (2002), a modified version of the Super Mario Bros.
video game for Nintendo's NES game console in which all of the game's graphics have been removed, leaving only a blue background with white clouds scrolling slowly from right to left.
appears in the frame, Arcangel places his hand over Simon's image. The work is one of several videos, performances and lectures by Arcangel based on Simon and Garfunkel's live concerts.
, using tiny fragments of video, each containing a single note produced by various instruments (and some performing pets) to create an arrangement of Bach
's Variation no. 1 (from the Goldberg Variations
). To do this, he had to create his own video-editing software.
's 1975 album Born to Run. While the album's title track includes a glockenspiel part, many of the songs on the album do not. Arcangel created a glockenspiel part for each of these songs, releasing them on this vinyl record, which can be played in sync with Springsteen's original to add a 'missing' part to the original album. In addition to the LP, Arcangel has also performed the piece live.
video games (for game consoles from Atari 2600
to Nintendo GameCube
) to throw only gutter balls. Arcangel says, "But throwing a gutter ball is just humiliating. That's what makes the piece so ridiculous, but also sad and even oppressive. The failure seems funny at first–then it flips." Art critic Charles Darwent from The Independent
described the work as "complex and funny and moving." Andrea K. Scott of The New Yorker
compared the piece to Bruce Nauman
's "Stamping in the Studio", where he stamped in an empty room for an hour, as "a ritual of isolation and futility".
, Switzerland
,, and exhibitions in the Barbican Centre
in London
, England
and the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Chicago
, Illinois
. His work has also been exhibited in many places in New York City
, including the Museum of Modern Art
's Color Chart, the 2004 Whitney Museum, and the New Museum. His work is included in public collections in locations such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Miami Art Museum
, Migros Museum, and Neue Nationalgalerie
. Arcangel is represented by Team Gallery in New York, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
in Paris
and Salzburg
, Lisson Gallery
in London, and Galerie Guy Bartschi in Geneva
.
. Arcangel was diagnosed with thyroid
cancer
. His treatments gave him both concentration and memory issues, completely wiping out his short-term memory
for a period of time. It also temporarily affected his work, leading him to create works that he described as "hyper-structuralist" or void of "real content". The cancer returned in 2009, and his lymph nodes were removed, freeing him of the disease.
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
artist who makes work in many different media, including drawing, music, video, performance,, and video game modifications, for which he is perhaps best known. Arcangel often uses the artistic strategy of appropriation
Appropriation (art)
Appropriation is a fundamental aspect in the history of the arts . Appropriation can be understood as "the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work."...
, creatively re-using existing materials such as dancing stands, Photoshop gradients, and YouTube videos to create new works of art. His work explores the relationship between technology and culture.
Early life
Arcangel grew up in BuffaloBuffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, New York and attended the Nichols School
Nichols School
Nichols School is a private, non-denominational, co-educational college-preparatory day school located in Buffalo, New York, USA. The average enrollment is 570 students with an average Upper School grade/class size of 98 students...
, where he was a star lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
goalie. He was exposed to experimental video artists such as Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
through the Squeaky Wheel Buffalo Media Arts Center
Squeaky Wheel Buffalo Media Arts Center
Squeaky Wheel is a grassroots, artist-run non-profit media arts center in Buffalo, NY, founded in 1985 to promote and support film, video, computer, digital and audio art by media artists and community members.The center provides low-cost access to video and film equipment rental, editing suites,...
. He was very interested in guitar, practicing eight hours a day by the time he turned seventeen. He studied classical guitar at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...
, but later switched to major in the technology of music. At Oberlin, Arcangel met Jacob Ciocci and Paul B. Davis. Arcangel and Davis formed the Beige Programming Ensemble in 2000, and released a record of 8-bit
Chiptune
A chiptune, also known as chip music, is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of vintage computers and video game consoles, as well as with other methods such as emulation. In the early 1980s, personal computers became cheaper and more accessible than they had previously...
music entitled "The 8-Bit Construction Set".
Arcangel credits Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
, with whom he took a composition class, for his "fascination with finding artistic inspiration in unlikely machines". He describes a piece in which she connected sine wave
Sine wave
The sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. It occurs often in pure mathematics, as well as physics, signal processing, electrical engineering and many other fields...
oscillators to loudspeaker
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
s and output the exact audio frequency
Audio frequency
An audio frequency or audible frequency is characterized as a periodic vibration whose frequency is audible to the average human...
as the resonance
Resonance
In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate at a greater amplitude at some frequencies than at others. These are known as the system's resonant frequencies...
of the concert hall, creating an increasingly louder sound. This, he says, was what made it "click" for him. Arcangel counts many among his influences, including Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
, and Weekend at Bernie's
Weekend at Bernie's
Weekend at Bernie's is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff. A comedy starring Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman features the two as a couple of young insurance agency employees who discover their boss is deceased...
.
Super Mario Clouds
Arcangel's best known works are his NintendoNintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
game cartridge hacks and reworkings of obsolete computer systems of the 1970s and 80s. One example is Super Mario Clouds (2002), a modified version of the Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.
is a 1985 platform video game developed by Nintendo, published for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. In Super Mario Bros., the player controls Mario as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist...
video game for Nintendo's NES game console in which all of the game's graphics have been removed, leaving only a blue background with white clouds scrolling slowly from right to left.
Pizza Party
Pizza Party (2004) was a free, functional software package that could be used to order Domino's pizza through a command-line interface. The program allowed users to order pizza by typing in commands such as pizza_party -pmx 2 medium regular, which - according to the artist - would order 2 medium crust pizzas with pepperoni, mushrooms and extra cheese. The piece was commissioned by Eyebeam Research and Development and implemented by Mike Frumin.Sans Simon
In this 2004 single-channel video, Arcangel points the camera at a television screen that is playing a tape of the concert. Each time Paul SimonPaul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
appears in the frame, Arcangel places his hand over Simon's image. The work is one of several videos, performances and lectures by Arcangel based on Simon and Garfunkel's live concerts.
Punk Rock 101
Punk Rock 101 (2006) is an example of Arcangel's work with the Web as an artistic medium. For this piece, he re-published Kurt Cobain's suicide letter alongside a series of Google Ads. The ads are tailored to the content of any given page, and the piece juxtaposed of Cobain's angst with ads selling social anxiety treatment and motivational speaking. Art critic Paddy Johnson wrote of the work, "This is quite possibly the most brilliant subversion of the medium I have seen."a couple thousand short films about Glenn Gould
In 2007, Film and Video Umbrella commissioned Arcangel to produce a new work, a couple thousand short films about Glenn GouldGlenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach...
, using tiny fragments of video, each containing a single note produced by various instruments (and some performing pets) to create an arrangement of Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
's Variation no. 1 (from the Goldberg Variations
Goldberg Variations
The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form...
). To do this, he had to create his own video-editing software.
The Bruce Springsteen Born to Run Glockenspiel Addendum
Arcangel's 2007 LP is an intervention into Bruce SpringsteenBruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
's 1975 album Born to Run. While the album's title track includes a glockenspiel part, many of the songs on the album do not. Arcangel created a glockenspiel part for each of these songs, releasing them on this vinyl record, which can be played in sync with Springsteen's original to add a 'missing' part to the original album. In addition to the LP, Arcangel has also performed the piece live.
Photoshop Gradient Demonstrations
Arcangel's series of Photoshop Gradient Demonstrations are large, colorful prints produced using the gradient tool built into the popular image-processing software Photoshop. The title of each of these works describes the process by which it was made. For example, one 2008 work is titled Photoshop CS: 110 by 72 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient "Spectrum", mousedown y=1098 x=1749.9, mouse up y=0 x=4160. With these instructions, any Photoshop user can reproduce Arcangel's abstract images exactly on their own computer.Various Self Playing Bowling Games (aka Beat the Champ)
Arcangel created Various Self Playing Bowling Games (aka Beat the Champ (2011) by hacking various bowlingBowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
video games (for game consoles from Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
to Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
) to throw only gutter balls. Arcangel says, "But throwing a gutter ball is just humiliating. That's what makes the piece so ridiculous, but also sad and even oppressive. The failure seems funny at first–then it flips." Art critic Charles Darwent from The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
described the work as "complex and funny and moving." Andrea K. Scott of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
compared the piece to Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives in Galisteo, New Mexico....
's "Stamping in the Studio", where he stamped in an empty room for an hour, as "a ritual of isolation and futility".
Exhibitions
Arcangel's work has appeared in many museum exhibitions, including a solo exhibition at the Migros Museum in ZurichZürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
,, and exhibitions in the Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. His work has also been exhibited in many places in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, including the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
's Color Chart, the 2004 Whitney Museum, and the New Museum. His work is included in public collections in locations such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Miami Art Museum
Miami Art Museum
The Miami Art Museum is an art museum located in Downtown Miami, Florida, in the United States. It was founded in 1984 as the Center for the Fine Arts, and in 1996 became the Miami Art Museum...
, Migros Museum, and Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin...
. Arcangel is represented by Team Gallery in New York, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
The Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac was founded in 1983 and has specialized in European and North American contemporary art.Today the gallery’s headquarters are housed in the magnificent Villa Kast on Salzburg’s Mirabellplatz. In 1990, a gallery featuring over 600m2 of exhibition space was opened in Paris....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, Lisson Gallery
Lisson Gallery
The Lisson Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Bell Street, Lisson Grove, London, founded by Nicholas Logsdail in 1967. The gallery represents such artists as Ai Weiwei, John Latham, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Jonathan Monk, Julian Opie, Richard Wentworth and Turner Prize winners Anish Kapoor...
in London, and Galerie Guy Bartschi in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
.
Personal life
Arcangel is married to Hanne Mugaas, a Norwegian curatorCurator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
. Arcangel was diagnosed with thyroid
Thyroid
The thyroid gland or simply, the thyroid , in vertebrate anatomy, is one of the largest endocrine glands. The thyroid gland is found in the neck, below the thyroid cartilage...
cancer
Thyroid cancer
Thyroid neoplasm is a neoplasm or tumor of the thyroid. It can be a benign tumor such as thyroid adenoma, or it can be a malignant neoplasm , such as papillary, follicular, medullary or anaplastic thyroid cancer. Most patients are 25 to 65 years of age when first diagnosed; women are more affected...
. His treatments gave him both concentration and memory issues, completely wiping out his short-term memory
Short-term memory
Short-term memory is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time. The duration of short-term memory is believed to be in the order of seconds. A commonly cited capacity is 7 ± 2 elements...
for a period of time. It also temporarily affected his work, leading him to create works that he described as "hyper-structuralist" or void of "real content". The cancer returned in 2009, and his lymph nodes were removed, freeing him of the disease.
External links
- Cory's home page
- Team Gallery
- Lecture given by Cory at Columbia University
- Cory Arcangel on Tinkering and doing Stuff An interview with Cory Arcangel from August 2007
- Legacy Hackster An interview with Cory Arcangel in Petitemort, issue 1, story #2, 2003
- Interview in Switch
- BEIGE