Genuinely exuberant but mischievously subversive, Cory Arcangel's many performances, artworks, and collaborations are connected by a love of old-school technology. The artist's interest in vintage pixels comes not from nostalgia but with reference to the common language of early video games, ubiquitous graphics, and internet effluvium that so thoroughly dominates our culture.

In Super Mario Movie , which Arcangel made with frequent collaborator Paper Rad, the Italian plumber loses himself in a series of desolate fields, kaleidoscopic clouds, pulsating patterns, and crunktastic beats, all played live off an altered, hand-soldered Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) cartridge. It's perversely funny to watch Mario endure an existential crisis only to find salvation at a psychedelic dance party.

Other works subvert the newest-fastest juggernaut of technological consumption through collage and absurdist juxtapositions. Dooogle.com returns links pertaining only to Doogie Howser, while I Shot Andy Warhol recreates the arcade game Hogan's Alley with Andy, the Pope, Flava Flav, and Colonel Sanders as targets. Colors, currently on view at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, reduces Dennis Hopper's 1988 movie to a 33-day-long display of moving color bars.

Approaching the light, quick genius of writer Italo Calvino, Arcangel bases his work more on themes of play, psychology, and subversion than technology. He frequently posts hack-your-own instructions detailing his process so that, in theory, you too could make Mario dream of thumping lights and colored music.

-LC