Dead-in-Iraq and the spatial politics of digital game art activism

Authors

Kheen Sum (Dean) Chan, Edith Cowan University

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Faculty

Faculty of Education and Arts

School

School of Communications and Arts / Centre for Research in Entertainment, Arts, Technology, Education and Communications

RAS ID

5815

Comments

Chan, D. (2007). Dead-In-Iraq and the spatial politics of digital game art activism. Communication, Civics, Industry, ANZCA and La Trobe University.

Abstract

Dead-in Iraq is both a memorial to dead soldiers and a war protest. It also happens to take place within an online multiplayer game, namely the U.S. Army recruiting game America’s Army. This paper examines U.S. based artist Joseph DeLappe’s project as an act of digital culture jamming. As a tactic of intercepting information flows, Dead-in-Iraq highlights the spatial politics at stake in contemporary culture – and specifically, the spatialisation of protest within mediated culture. Deadin-Iraq is the ludic equivalent of an online pacifist act of civil disobedience; and it serves as an expanded case study to consider how issues of rights and responsibilities are spatialised in online games. At issue here are the imbricated spaces, politics and ethics of digital game art activism.