Online Memorial and a Protest
dead-in-iraq
Artist Joseph DeLappe presents documentation of a work-in-progress of online gaming intervention – dead-in-iraq. The project involves connecting to America’s Army, the online first person shooter game/recruiting/PR tool of the US Army; DeLappe logs into the game using the screen name “dead-in-iraq” and, rather than have his character participate in the proscribed mission to seek and destroy opponents, DeLappeÂ’s soldier functions as a passive participant. While his soldier is standing in place, DeLappe proceeds to type, using the gameÂ’s text messaging system, the name and date of death of all the soldiers who have died in Iraq, one line at a time. The text information appears on all team memberÂ’s screens interspersed with other messages from players and a running accounting of the progress of the game. “dead-in-iraq” is eventually killed by opposing players. A new game commences and the process continues. To date, over 300 names have been typed live into the gamespace. The project will continue until the end of the war. This work is intended as an online memorial and a protest. Continue reading