For all you Republicans out there, you can take out some of your hostility on this performance artist, an Iraqi American, who has volunteered to spend the month of May in a room with a paintball gun controlled via the Internet. I think the point is, shoot this guy with paint balls instead of bombing downtown Baghdad. Food for thought for the 1/3 of Americans who still support this war. Maybe you'll be happy with shooting just this A-rab instead of cheering on the destruction of an entire country.
Network Performance Daily has an interview with the artist, who talks about dehumanization of the enemy and the facilitation of killing and war by psychological distance.
Q. Do you think the pseudo-anonymity of the internet and the distance has a lot to do with how this project is turning out?Via boing boing.
A. No doubt about it. I mean, (*bang*) it is internet-based, and it is using the latest way of communication, but by design (*bang*), I wanted to remove the viewer from any physical impact. You log on the set, and you don't even have sound (*bang,bang*) I mean, you're hearing it right now, because we're on the phone, but when you're on the site, you never hear it. That speaks of the virtual war that's being conducted against Iraq and other nations as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment