What inspired you to start this project?

This past March I decided to dedicate myself to this project after seeing a hand-painted sign in a store window here in Reno - it did not state the ubiquitous "Support our Troops", this one said "Remember our Troops" the implicit message of this sign was that our troops were being forgotten.  

In 2003 there was an international call for ideas for the design for a memorial for the 9/11 site that resulted in 5,210 proposals.   I was alternately struck by the outpouring of ideas for this particular context, while at the same time wondering just what the memorial to those soldiers dying in the war in Iraq might eventually be.   I was also wondering if there would ever be a memorial to the many thousands of innocent civilians to die in the war in Iraq - but I digress.    Much of my inspiration to engage in this project came from thinking about Maya Lin's incredibly powerful Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington DC.   The work is not only a memorial, in my thinking, but also a protest - it is literally a symbolic wound, a huge black gash into the surface of the mall.   The listing of the names of the many thousands of dead soldiers from this conflict on Lin's memorial create a powerful context for considering the cost of war while at the same time honoring the fallen.

I have worked for years now engaging in interventionist artistic strategies to bring new content to online computer games via the built in text messaging systems.   I had been aware and curious about the America's Army recruiting game for several years.   The idea for the "dead-in-iraq" project came about as a way to create a living, fleeting memorial to our fallen soldiers.    It is very important to recognize that this idea was first a memorial - the aspect of the work as a protest is, in my thinking, significant but secondary.

Is this project a protest against the war?

The real issue I am expressing in this work is more complex than a straight out condemnation of either the war or the "America's Army" game.   It is indeed a protest against the war.   That said, what I am also concerned about is the lack of connection between what is happening in Iraq and how we are living our lives in the United States during a time of war.   There has been no shared sacrifice.   The vast majority of Americans have no direct connection to the very real cost in lives that is happening in our name on the other side of the globe.    I am doing this to make a very personal gesture - you can think of the typing of the names of our fallen soldiers in the America's Army computer game as being like writing something on a chalkboard in school over and over again.   This is my way to take personal responsibility towards mourning the deaths of these, our fellow American's.   We, as a nation, have not been given the opportunity to grieve in any meaningful way - the flag draped coffins, the funerals, - these have been largely invisible to us.   We have been encouraged to go on with our lives as if nothing is happening.   Many people choose to place a magnetic yellow ribbon on the back of their SUV's - I choose to do this.  

Have I had any contact with the developers of the America's Army Game?

I have not had any direct contact with the America's Army development team.   Several journalists have contacted them in regard to my project - they have all received a canned response stating essentially that they will take no action against anyone unless they are disrupting the play of others or engaged in the use of foul language.  

Why did you choose a video game to do this?

Online video games are largely viewed as simply a new form of escapist entertainment.   Sales of computer and video games now, in fact, surpass Hollywood movie receipts.    Online computer games represent a new type of social environment.   As social interaction migrates further and further into this mediated context it only seems appropriate that, as a media artist, I seek to explore ways to express myself in this context.

I think of such online computer gaming as having established a new type of public space.   What I am doing is essentially very similar to giving a speech in a public setting - a virtual soapbox if you will.

In this regard, the "America's Army" computer game represents a rather unique context.   This is a taxpayer funded recruiting, marketing and propaganda tool for the US military.   It has been specifically designed to meet the parameters of violence for a teen rating (age 13+) as established by the Entertainment Standards Rating Board .   This game presents a fantastically unrealistic depiction of war - in fact, it trivializes war - nobody dies, there are no civilian casualties, no improvised explosive devices and no messy politics - the game presents a truly questionable representation of military service.   What is crucial to consider is that this is arguably the only video game out there that, if it succeeds in drawing you into military service that you could either be killed or kill others.   I think it is questionable to use a computer game to play a role in such an important, serious and potentially life changing decision.

What kind of response have you received from other gamers?

During the process of methodically typing in each name, one at a time, other gamers are primarily negative in their response.   Yet the reactions are often subtle - often after logging on to a particular game server and continuing the process, I will notice several other players disconnecting - is this because of my actions, are my actions causing this?   I have no way to know really.   What has been fascinating to observe has been the intense dialogue taking place on a variety of game oriented blogs and news outlets on the web - the opinions expressed have generally be split among those opposing my actions and those in support.  

Any positive feedback?

I have received positive feedback - generally in the form of emails and blog comments.   My intention has been, all along, to create awareness, to encourage us to question just what it is we are escaping from when we spend hours upon hours engaged in virtual warfare while very real people are dying in the in war in Iraq.   I have been encouraged by the intense range of feedback regarding this project as it is apparent that what I am doing is resonating on some level.   It has also been very intense engaging in a written back and forth with those either in support or against what I am doing.   I can't say definitively whether I have changed any minds in this regard but I have managed, in certain instances to come close to common ground with those initially very hostile to my memorial project.

Have I heard from any families who were killed in Iraq.

Yes.   I have received one email from the brother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq.   He very thoughtfully expressed that he respected my right to engage in this project but asked if I would not include his brother in the listing of names.   I checked through my list and had already included his brother's name in the memorial.   I wrote him a long email describing my motivations, including my impassioned belief that part of the problem with what is going on in our country today is that we have given up any sense of collective responsibility for these deaths - whether soldiers or innocent civilians.   By doing what I am doing I am trying to personally connect, pay tribute and accept responsibility for the very human cost of this war.  

I truly believe part of the reason we are so disconnected from what is going on in Iraq is that we consider the responsibility towards mourning to solely fall on the shoulders of the loved ones and family members of the soldiers who have given the ultimate sacrifice.   This may serve only to widen the sense of disconnect - these are OUR fellow Americans - they are serving all of us.   I do this to mourn and to question.   In a democracy, it should be the responsibility of all of us to share the burden of war.

What have you done similar?

I have been working on a variety of projects in online game spaces for the past 6 years or so.   All of these come from my interest in exploring these online environments by engaging in what might be considered a new type of virtual street theater.   These have included reciting via text messaging, in character as Allen Ginsberg, his seminal beat poem "Howl", word for word over 7 hours in the Star Trek Elite Force Voyager game in 2001.   I, along with 5 fellow local gamers, performed an entire episode of the TV show "Friends", each as a character from the show, in the ultra violent first person shooter game Quake.   I also engaged in a project in the "Medal of Honor" World War II simulation game where I typed in the poetry of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, two soldiers who wrote very moving words regarding the carnage of war.    Most recently, in 2004, I re-enacted each of the three Presidential debates between John Kerry and President Bush in different online game environments - the first in "Battlefield Vietnam", the second in "Star Wars: Jedi Knight Outcast" and the third in "The Sims Online", each re-enactment involved typing in roughly 15,000 words, switching characters between Bush and Kerry depending upon the transcribed text from the debates.

What kind of impact or message do you want to send out?

In a way, this is a very quiet, respectful and private gesture. I am one of literally hundreds of thousands of people online at any moment who are absorbed in first person shooter escapist entertainment. At times if feels a bit like shooting a squirtgun in a hurricane.   What I am doing is an epitaphic gesture that I hope would have some impact on those immediately in the game and upon others who, as this project has moved forward, have only learned about the idea.   This is where the real impact of this project may lie.    I hope the work builds awareness regarding the true cost of war and encourages others to consider the role that each of us may or may not play in the process of mourning the deaths inherent to war that is completely absent in computer games.    Of the utmost importance as far as I am concerned is that through my actions I take a personal stand as a citizen and an artist regarding the sacrifice and the cost of the War in Iraq and the questionable use of a computer game to encourage our young people to join the military.   I am using my platform as a media artist to take a stand - to ask difficult questions and seek to discover meaning and clarity in a time of confusion and conflict.