mod refers to a work form in which an existing game is altered and repurposed within the contexts of net.art, game modification, and hacker art, especially from the mid-1990s onward. The key shift described in the source material is that artists no longer needed to create a game from scratch. Instead of merely “reading” an existing game, they could modify code, distribute patches, break interfaces, and hijack rules. In this sense, a mod is not simply an add-on or technical supplement, but a creative act that produces meaning through difference from an existing system.
The passage places works such as JODI’s SOD and Untitled–Game, Condon’s Adam Killer, Schleiner’s Velvet-Strike, and Arcangel’s ROM hacks within this lineage. Although these works differ in method and appearance, they share a common logic: originality is located not in zero-based production, but in the intervention into an existing game structure. The work is therefore dispersed across the game’s code, cartridge, ROM, patch, and the act of distribution, rather than being confined to a finished screen image.
Theoretical framing in the source also describes mod as part of a player-driven mutation of the game. Players are not passive recipients of authorial intent; through modification, alternative use, and interpretation, they become agents who change the game’s meaning itself. The source further notes that game patches, add-ons, maps, and mods can function as forms that rewrite game culture. Based on the provided context, mod is best understood as a practice of aesthetic and political intervention into existing game systems.