Miyamoto, Og, Grotto Paradises

In the multidimensional worlds of Mario game there are hidden spaces where the consciousness of the viewer discovers an endless array of channels, doorways and transporter pipes. This abundant creative invention isolates the pure Chi energy of primordial elements: wood, metal with the seasonal environs of equinautical Feng-Shui matrices.  Mario plunges through the echoing, vibrantly nuanced universe of oxidized pipes, waterfalls and wooden scafoldings. Within this subtterainean dimension are levels of frozen ice, clumps of snow earth and a retro shopping mall abandoned from 1976 equipped with escalator stairs of snowy ice and linear airport-style conveyor belt propels Mario over the gold-tiled basins of water.

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Visually the player is projected into a 2-Dimensional field of chromatic objects with free interaction. Borrowed from the original Super Mario 3 concept-architectonics this level is poignantly remeniscent of the brilliant contrasts of light and background of the early arcade and pinball games (1970s-1980s). When Shigeru Miyamoto conceived the videogame style that would define Nintendo, and a whole generation of game designers, he drew inspiration from childhood experiences. Like the Zen master Dogen Zenji who had his first experience of Satori and a consciousness-altering vision when visiting an art museum as a boy -- Miyamoto's creative insights were triggered by a direct seeing of Tao, or a 'Grotto-Heaven', when he had stumbled upon a channel of caverns while exploring the forest behinds his childhood home. The ground was grown over an area with leaves and Miyamoto fell through the earth into a hidden world of caves beneath, his spirit reflected in this grotto a genuine recognition of the Tao essence that he continued having contact with throughout his life, for instance, in the mysterious cubbies and spaces of the attic he spent time in at his childhood home. His interest in industrial design led to his success in that field and later becoming creative director at Nintendo. During his years at college Miyamoto was also member of a garage band back when the Indie rock genre was starting to emerge in Japan.

The waterfalls of Hidden Level 8 and the underground free-fall pipe background in Level 5-2 both contained on the original Mario 3 Famicom cartridge 1988 release are combined together.  Relating directly to Miyamoto's early vision of another world in the grotto tunnels bellow the forests where he grew up one is also reminded of Pierre Berton's 1961 story The Secret World of Og. A parallel to L Frank Baum's Oz series, the Secret World of Og is a children's fantasy novel about a hidden world of tunnels beneath the earth discovered under a trap door and whose inhabitants are little elfin and water-spirit type creatures who only speak one word: Og.

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