MARK CALLAHAN
Folk Forms No. 1
House and Universe
Reverse E
1968
24 Hour Miss South Carolina
Cloud Salsa
Internet Soul Portraits (I.S.P.)
Excursions
American Trilogy
One
Vanishing Point
Real
Chewingum
Cameo
Prints
Folk Forms No. 1

Project link: http://mazamedia.com/ff1/

Folk Forms No. 1
2012

Folk Forms No. 1 is a browser-based animation created for Game Change: Videogames as Art Medium and Inspiration, an exhibition at the Telfair Museums, Jepson Center for the Arts in Savannah, Georgia. The basic shapes and grid format recall the visual style and movement of arcade and home video games during the 1980s, abstracted and redrawn from memory. The phrase "folk forms" suggests both the mass popularity and iconic qualities of early games, such as Pac-Man and its many clones (Snack Attack, KC Munchkin, et al.). The work creates a comedy of metaphysics, pairing the archetypal symbol of the circle or moon with the neo-archetype of the Pac-Man death sequence in an endless and shifting array of stop-animation loops.

Game Change: Videogames as Art Medium and Inspiration at Telfair Museums, Jepson Center