We Spy Lo-Fi

Despite all the progress in computer animation and state-of-the-art digital imaging, retro graphics endure in popular culture, especially among Gen Y, which is drawn staunchly to lo-fi aesthetics and clunky clip art. Is their ongoing fascination with these throwback forms essentially an homage to the joy that 8-bit art once brought them, or is it their persistent sense of irony that’s keeping these graphics current?

De-CGI Something: Boing Boing posted a Back to School Challenge this year encouraging readers to “De-CGI Something” – that is, to take an image typically displayed with computer-generated imagery and recreate it in a more organic medium. Contestants submitted projects using materials like watercolors, needlepoint, chalk, recycled clothes, and even junk. Blog commentary surrounding the contest paid tribute to retro imagery created originally in CGI, even as some frustration arose from within Boing Boing’s global audience (directed toward contest sponsor HP) because submissions were limited initially to US residents. Ultimately, the rules were modified so that entries from Canada could be accepted. In the end, it was an ideal way for the brand to connect with Boing Boing’s ambassadors of cyberpunk, while allowing them to express their right brain talents.

Super Mario Bros. Mural: Those who stand by Roger Ebert’s musing that “video games could never be art” need to pay a visit to the administration building at the Columbus College of Art & Design. For the month of September, passersby can engage with a life-sized game of Super Mario Bros., as a team of students have reimagined the familiar (and widely celebrated) level 1-1 version as an interactive mural. For more than two decades, this was the bestselling game ever…until Wii Sports stole the title in 2009. On September 13th, everyone’s favorite mustachioed plumbers celebrated 25 years of fighting off Bowser to save Princess Peach and, after a quarter century, those same retro graphics continue to inspire art and music projects that resonate deeply among adoring fans.

Lo-Fi Video Art: “In addition to prepping for his Chrimbus Tour, Eric Wareheim (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) has been busy adding his bizarro visual flair to music videos. In his signature absurd style, Wareheim artfully mashes out-of-date CGI with some space-age, some psychedelic, and some so-bad-they’re-good graphics to render stunning off-the-wall visuals for each song. The results are quite out of the ordinary, and they’ve caught viral waves across cyberspace on behalf of buzz bands like MGMT, The Bird and the Bee, Tommy Sparks, Phantom Planet, Flying Lotus and Major Lazer. His retro graphic work flashes faster than our minds can wander, satisfying a thirst for visually incongruous lo-fi chaos we never knew we had.