Some of his works are created by deliberately (and sometimes targeted) breaking of hardware; this technique is called “circuit bending” :)

I tend to disagree heavily. I would think of it as rather gamey (most games I played over the last year were much more narrative-oriented; this is a quintessential game!). Is there a thing you don’t like? You’ll look good when playing it, and you might even feel cool!

You should change your Distribution. Arch is a rolling release distribution with a strong focus on customization. If you use binaries shipped by another source, problems like those you described are quite likely to happen. Going to a distribution that isn’t that cutting edge (but still cutting edge enough to deliver working drivers/libs) would reduce the risk for such things.