GAME PLAY 2011 – Works

GAME PLAY 2011

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68 25cm x 30cm canvases

In 2010 WikiLeaks released a classified US military video depicting a 2007 incident in Iraq where over a dozen civilians were shot from an American Apache gunship, including two Reuters news staff.   WikiLeaks called the footage, “Collateral Murder” and described the actions of the Apache crew as similar to playing a video game, keen for a high score.  The transcript from the event shows the language to be similar to the game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, in the mission ‘Death from Above’.   Video games have been used for some time in the United States as a cost effective way to recruit and train military personnel.  This installation is developed from transcript and images from the Call of Duty game and from the video of the real events which occurred in New Baghdad 12th July 2007.

Photographer: David Martinelli & Debra Strode Smith (individual canvases)