I’m presenting my project plan for this quarter in class tomorrow and wanted to post a rough outline and collection of links to guide me, and to let everyone know what I’m up to.
The video piece (available here and embedded in the previous post) is a combination of machinima (footage from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, and Shadow of the Colossus) and live-action, public domain US Military footage. I’m really concerned with the propagation of the message that war is simulation, and with recruitment based on this premise. The US Army and Navy both promote games on their websites, and both actually have a dedicated videogame (America’s Army being far more popular and robust than the Navy’s Strike & Retrieve Navy Training Exercise).
Where does “the other” fit into the stories told by America’s Army, and by the media construction of war in general? One project, Dead in Iraq, is one response to this question (for which “the other” is actually the dead US soldier, whose face and body has become invisible). Joseph DeLappe logs onto the game and simply reads the names of US Soldiers killed in the current war in Iraq, to various reactions from players in the game.
For those who don’t seek out the games, there is always recruiting. Here’s a story about the Air Force recruiting with the popular first-person shooter Halo 2. Halo 3 is being used to recruit for an entirely different army.
The piece is called Layers in order to address the visual layers of indirection involved in modern, distance, “smart” warfare. Other questions I’d like to address with the final piece:
- What is Machinima? Is it simply re-enactment of movies in a virtual environment? Here’s one example, in which the military re-enactment simply refers to “the enemy” as he is comically killed in the game engine.
- Who controls the images captured from videogames? What are the “fair use” rights of producers?
- Can part of play be a critique when it comes to videogames?
- Finally, where is the propaganda to recruit volunteers for local, humanitarian service to those who need it? How can games be used for these ends?
I would like to make a series of video pieces along similar formal lines and exhibit them together in a show, as well as online. That’s as far as I’ve gotten, so any feedback here would be very helpful.
I see one of the layers as the general ability for people to disassociate themselves from “the other” when justifying actions that they would feel uncomfortable imposing upon named individuals, especially those from their direct “clan”. I feel that this is something that human beings are and have been very good at doing through out the centuries even before the introduction of modern media.
However, modern media has the ability to give us just another window to look through. As soon as someone is “named” and humanized and officially a member of your group it becomes harder to disassociate. I feel like that is what happens in the piece “Dead in Iraq”. The naming of soldiers in that environment sort of jolts the consciousness of those playing the game. I wonder though, what change of reaction would there be if those being named where not U.S. soldiers but Iraqis or members of the other “clan”? What would be the reaction of Iraqi soldier upon hearing the naming of the dead U.S. soldiers?
I remember being at work during an air strike on Iraq’s military and security targets in 1998. I worked out at the airport, and the break room was full of people while we waited for one of the late planes to arrive. The television was showing the military strike “live”. I watched the air shot imagery of explosions as I looked over the heads of my fellow coworkers who were laughing and talking as they played cards and drank coffee. I remember thinking, “I am watching people die.”
Media tools, including games, can be used to encourage our ability to disassociate from each other and ourselves. However, they are only tools and for that reason can be used for the opposite effect. I believe your video piece began to touch on that ability. I think that might be what is happening in Machinima work. Even the comedy of “Red vrs Blue” puts personalities upon the blank faces.
Comment by tbalogh — October 15, 2007 @ 12:13 pm