dead-in-iraq, 2006
Joseph DeLappe has been inputting the names, ages, and dates of death of soldiers killed in Iraq into the online chat of an FPS (first person shooter, one of those games where you run around and butcher people) called America's Army. This game has been created and monitored by the US Government as a recruiting and training tool for the war in Iraq. Here's the lowdown from Joe's site (which has plenty of thought provoking and amusingly absurd work - well worth a browse):
This work commenced in March of 2006, to roughly coincide with the 3rd anniversary of the start of the Iraq conflict. I enter the online US Army recruiting game, "America's Army", in order to manually type the name, age, service branch and date of death of each service person who has died to date in Iraq. The work is essentially a fleeting, online memorial to those military personnel who have been killed in this ongoing conflict. My actions are also intended as a cautionary gesture.
I enter the game using as my login name, "dead-in-iraq" and proceed to type the names using the game's text messaging system. As is my usual practice when creating such an intervention, I am a neutral visitor as I do not particate in the proscribed mayhem. Rather, I stand in position and type until I am killed. After death, I hover over my dead avatar's body and continue to type. Upon being re-incarnated in the next round, I continue the cycle.
As of 7/1/06 , I have input 730 names. I intend to keep doing so until the end of this war. As of 7/1/06 there have been 2,536 American service persons killed in Iraq. (source - http://icasualties.org/oif/)
"America's Army" is the online recruiting game and PR tool of the United States Army. For more information go to:
http://www.sourcewatch.org
http://www.americasarmy.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk
There is a fascinating discussion about this work here.
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