Cory Arcangel’s Super Mario Clouds (2002) video had me confused for most of its five minute fifty-four second duration as I sat there trying to figure out what it could possibly be about and whether or not anything else would occur besides the slow ticking motion of the clouds drifting across my screen. It was only after about thirty seconds of silence and clouds that I realised that the video was not what I had expected from it but was exactly what its title indicated– clouds. No talking, no introduction, no music– just clouds.
As I watched the video, I began to take note of a series of things, such as the absence of the iconic Super Mario music and the fact that this video was the first time I actually really noticed the Super Mario Clouds slowly moving across the screen. What is universally known to be a fast-paced game with fast music to match where the background takes the backseat due to the activity of the foreground was essentially deconstructed into something serene. I had then realised that perhaps the purpose of the video was to provide some form of escapism or immersion into the Super Mario gameworld, where the only thing you have to do is just look at the clouds. At the time, watching it on my laptop in a dark room, I began to assume that the video was probably meant for a much larger display or medium rather than my limited screen-space.
After the Super Mario Clouds video ended, I did something I would never normally do on YouTube and scrolled through the comment section to see if people were wondering the same things as me. To my surprise, that happened to be the case, with some commenting whether something may be wrong with their PC due to the lack of sound, or the “part with the clouds,” or how much more the experience of immersion would be felt given the video covering the walls of an exhibit contrary to being watched on YouTube. What I had initially thought was a simply pointless video of clouds took on a more profound or avant-garde meaning, and really represented typically overlooked art in a video game medium.