DeLappe's video game protest is not exactly "Guernica," Picasso's famous rendering of the carnage of the Spanish civil war, but it occupies a room in a new school of political art that lambastes the Iraq war. Many of DeLappe's fellow artists-in-arms were on view this year at the Whitney Biennial, the controversial assembly of contemporary art. With the war raging, politics seemed to dominate the show. No work stood out more than a black-and-white poster by renowned artist Richard Serra, which showed the iconic image of the hooded prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison framed by the phrase, "Stop Bush." A series of videos by the grassroots collective Deep Dish T.V. Network, called "Shocking and Awful," highlighted everyday Americans' disgust with the war. And sculptor Mark di Suvero and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija updated di Suvero's famed "Peace Tower," constructed in rebellion against the Vietnam War, to rally people against the Iraq war. "Our hope, I think, is to awaken people, to have our numbers multiply," Tiravanija told Artforum.
It's always tricky to gauge the impact of political art, and DeLappe's work is no different in that regard. After all, his main audience in "America's Army" comprises young gamers, some of them actual soldiers stationed in Iraq, who log on to the game for fun and emotional release from extreme stress. When they confront DeLappe's protest, many are not amused. At ArmyOps Tracker, a chat room dedicated to discussion about "America's Army," gamers with names like Itchytriggerfinger, Smoke and Bandit post comments about everything from technical trouble to strategy. On the topic of DeLappe, words aren't minced: "The guy is an idiot" and "What an a**hole," wrote two. Many write him off as a jerk who screws up the game, although a few gamers offer more thoughtful explanations.
"It's the same as if he were to crash a Girl Scout meeting by yelling through a megaphone that they should vote his candidate in to office; it isn't the right time or place and it certainly isn't the right audience," writes Pfc. Will Coveleskie, a teacher from Shamokin, Penn., who has played America's Army since 2003. "I'm here to play a game, not read a CNN report."
Another gamer, Robert Kirby, 17, of Fort Worth, Texas, also doesn't need to be reminded about the reality of war. "I already think about my friends enough who died, and the ones who are over there right now," writes Kirby, who is headed to college to enter law enforcement. "I really don't care to see someone like him trolling in that server trying to stir up emotions like that."
Others explain DeLappe lacks a fundamental understanding of why the average gamer plays "America's Army" for several hours a day. When it comes to computer games, it rocks the Casbah!
"That it has a thin veil of U.S. Army propaganda attached to it makes no difference to us at all," writes Ghostdog, who has posted more than 2,000 comments on the "America's Army" Web site and has recruited three members since he joined in 2004. "The Developers that created this game did a wonderful job of building one of the most dynamic and competitive based games online to date. Players don't play the game to mimic real war anymore than chess players do. Aping the actions of real soldiers and combat is futile through a medium like a simple video game."
Even if some gamers are personally moved by the protest (DeLappe hasn't heard from any), the military is far from threatened by this artistic endeavor. Military spokesperson Lori Mezoff laughs when asked if the Army is concerned about the game affecting recruitment numbers. As of June, "America's Army" users had clicked on GoArmy.com 1.35 million times. With users having spent more than 160 million hours playing "America's Army," the military figures its investment of $2.5 million per year to expand and update the game is well worth it, Mezoff says.
On Sept. 14, the Army launched its 22nd update of the game. Included in the update is a program called America's Army Real Heroes. It lists the accomplishments of soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan who have earned the nation's highest awards for valor, such as the Silver Star or Distinguished Service Cross. While the real soldiers don't play "America's Army," gamers can read profiles or watch three-minute video interviews of them talking about their childhood and military experiences. It's a way to show recruits what the Army life is all about, Mezoff says.
Which DeLappe finds ironic. "Their intention to make the game more real is basically what I'm trying to do, but all the soldiers happen to still be alive," he says. "What's going to happen if one of them dies on another tour? Will they leave them in the game?"
Surprisingly, DeLappe has not become a darling of the antiwar movement. While some peace activists laud his effort, others sense that protest art is counterproductive.
"At the point when hundreds of thousands of people around the world were protesting and Bush said, 'You're a focus group; I don't have to pay attention to you,' symbolic protest -- where you simply hold up a sign and say, 'This is what I feel' --stopped being useful," says Michael Nagler, a peace scholar and activist who founded the Peace and Conflict Studies program at the University of California at Berkeley. "People in the peace movement gravitate toward art too quickly and use it too much. It's hard for me to say this, but the time has come for direct action and civil disobedience."
DeLappe listens to Nagler's comments and reflects on them quietly. Finally, he says that online spaces like "America's Army" are a critical place to interact with the world. "I'm going to where these impressionable kids are spending their time," he says. "If you get them where they live, and this causes them to think, even for an instant, then I think it's effective. Art is a limited form for trying to change the world, but it's the tool I have. This is what I do. As a media artist, this feels like my patriotic duty."
About the writer
Rebecca Clarren writes from Portland, Ore.
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