A power-up from Bad Dudes - 1988 arcade version
A power-up from Bad Dudes - 1990 NES version
Witness a can of Coca-Cola as it passes through various stages of being:
Stage One: The can exists in physical reality.
Stage Two: The can becomes a power up for the 1988 32-bit arcade game, Bad Dudes.
Stage Three: The can becomes a power up for the 1990 8-bit NES version of the 32-bit arcade game, Bad Dudes.
Stage Four: The 8-bit degenerative form of the can is superimposed over the original.
This is a physical manifestation of a pataphor – essentially an extention of a metaphor in which the degree of separation from reality is taken a step further.
An example of a pataphor from the Wikipedia entry on ‘Pataphysics:
Non-figurative
Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line.Metaphor
Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line, two pieces on a chessboard.Pataphor
Tom took a step closer to Alice and made a date for Friday night, checkmating. Rudy was furious at losing to Margaret so easily and dumped the board on the rose-colored quilt, stomping downstairs.Thus, the pataphor has created a world where the chessboard exists, including the characters who live in that world, entirely abandoning the original context.
The final iteration of the soda can in this fascinating simulacrum loop is the work of Atlanta-based artist Ashley Anderson. I came across the image in his photostream a couple of months ago, and wasn’t sure how to wrap my head around it intellectually until I started reading Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation. I’m still not sure I’ve got it entirely right, but it’s an adventurous concept, nonetheless.
I dare you to disagree.
No, seriously – I want someone smarter than me to comment on this. I’m not that educated.
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Let’s see: The “traditional” pataphor is a LINEAR transformation between universes.
In the traditional pataphor:
UNIVERSE A (Tom and Alice) >
begin bleeding into the second universe via a
SHADOW or OVERLAP UNIVERSE (chessboard), which contains elements of the start and end universes,
ending up in >
UNIVERSE B (Rudy and Margaret)
Summary:
UNIVERSE A > OVERLAP OR SHADOW UNIVERSE > UNIVERSE B
In the case of the pataphorical Coke can, you have two possible scenarios:
INTERPRETATION A:
UNIVERSE A (Coke can) begins its journey to UNIVERSE B (Bad Dudes game), where it becomes stuck in OVERLAP UNIVERSE, remaining in can form while being affected by two distinct timeframes of UNIVERSE B (specifically, UNIVERSE B incarnations 1988 and 1990). In other words, the can becomes stuck in OVERLAP UNIVERSE in some fashion, never fully reaching Bad Dudes universe, returning (or existing forever in OVERLAP UNIVERSE) as an unholy combination of UNIVERSES A and B, sort of like the scientist in the movie The Fly: half can, half Bad Dudes game.
INTERPRETATION B:
UNIVERSE A is Coke can.
UNIVERSE B is not Bad Dudes at all, but a universe where a Coke can is already an unholy combination of Coke and Bad Dudes. (Perhaps a universe where all video games and soft drinks are one.)
In this scenario, Bad Dudes is just a natural transition to the parallel universe where Bad Dudes and Coke are one thing
Or for Interpretation B2, perhaps there’s a “sidechain” universe feeding into OVERLAP UNIVERSE. In this SIDECHAIN UNIVERSE, EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS is merged in some way with Bad Dudes (rocks, clouds, stars), and this is what’s acting as the “engine” between UNIVERSES A and B, eternally transforming the Coke can from UNIVERSE A into its Bad Dudes equivalent in UNIVERSE B. Perhaps this “engine” also coughs a lot, like in a lime-green Volkswagen bug from 1975. Maybe the mechanic’s name is Walter.
We shall never know.
I sense some cuil theory at play, here. And I like it!