Constance ARI

Today the space between the referent and the game becomes increasingly opaque as real individuals are indistinguishably represented as video game characters in actual military combat, whilst US soldiers use Xbox controllers to direct drones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In this context, Pailthorpe’s photographic portraits of dead video game characters aim to mobilise ethical questions surrounding the integration of gaming technology in current wars, and to readdress the limits of the real/virtual dialectic. For Pailthorpe, such immersive, mediated realities represent a sanitised version of actual conflict by constructing a convenient, omni-potent euphemism of immortality and inconsequence through the opaque cloud of a militarily, ideologically induced dreamland.

www.badenpailthorpe.com

War Games

Baden Pailthorpe in discussion with Rebecca Fitzgibbon for 'Attitude', The Mercury newspaper, Hobart.
February 05, 2010

When you play video games, do you ever consider who or what the enemy represents?
Zombies, vampires, monsters and the undead are all common foes in gaming, but first-person shooter games are simulating real-world war zones with increasingly realistic-looking enemies.
Next time you’re taking out the enemy, take a good look at their faces.
What nationality are they?
Who do they represent in the real world?
These are the questions posed by Sydney artist and video-gamer Baden Pailthorpe in his exhibition Other v2.0, which opens tonight at Inflight ARI gallery.
Pailthorpe’s photos are portraits of videogame characters that he tracked down and killed during the course of a game as he explored the politics of characterisation and typecasting of the "Other" aka the enemy.
Enemies like these - for instance, the typical stereotype of a Middle-Eastern terrorist - can reinforce cultural stereotypes and racism, the artist believes.
It’s an ethical and moral concern for the thinking gamer.

"That is exactly the reason I’m looking into it - these games play such a close affinity with photographic reality and this kind of stuff is quite subtle, the way it works," Pailthorpe said.

"There are consequences [of these representations], it’s really radical."
Online war games have progressed beyond simulation, and have strong parallels to the real-world "war on terror".

The Pentagon itself designed a series of video games called America’s Army for training recruits.
The US Air Force recently ordered 2200 Sony PlayStation 3 consoles to build a supercomputer.
Real-world soldiers use Xbox controllers to direct drones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For real. But gamers are attracted to realistic war games because they can play these characters without any of the real-world consequences, Pailthorpe said.
"In popular culture, war is glorified.
"It is portrayed as quite an exciting thing, and games are a way for people to enjoy a sanitised version of that in the privacy of their own homes.
"People perhaps have a morbid fascination with it, and the distancing of any consequences.
"But since the Second World War, dehumanising the enemy has been a common strategy - you don’t want to recognise them as equals.
"People have become more automated; they are desensitised from their actions, and it makes more efficient soldiers."
But Pailthorpe is not anti-gaming.
He doesn’t believe violent games necessarily cause more real-world violence.
"It’s good fun! But in a context where gaming is becoming more integrated into actual warfare: that is the issue," he said.
"I think they are having a certain impact.
"When you get people like the Pentagon making video games, you can’t expect there to be no ideology behind them."  

Top 10 Video-game villains
    1. Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth is a fallen angel who wants to become a god to take control of the planet.
    2. Metal Gear Solid: Psycho Mantis is a shady telekinetic telepath with roots in the FBI and KGB, who takes over your game console during confrontation; reading your memory card, analysing your stats and acting like a virus.
    3. Legend of Zelda: Ganon (aka Ganondorf) is a vicious tyrant who wields the Triforce of Power in his mad thirst for power.
    4. Metroid: Mother Brain is behind the evil Space Pirates and offers an epic assault at the end of the game.
    5. Star Wars games: Darth Vader (aka the Dark Lord of the Sith) has been around since old-school arcade gaming in 1983 and reigns villainous supreme.
    6. Super Mario Bros: Bowser (aka King Koopa or Lord Bowser) is the leader of the turtle-like Koopa race, kidnapping Princess Peach and attempting to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom since 1985.
    7. Street Fighter: M. Bison (aka Vega) is leader of the crime syndicate, Shadaloo (Shadowlaw), who wields an evil energy called "Psycho Power".
    8. Chrono Trigger: Lavos is an alien parasite with immense destructive powers _ when he awoke from a million-year nap, he caused a global apocalypse!
    9. Sonic the Hedgehog: Dr Ivo Robotnik (aka Dr Eggman), a rotund scientist with an IQ of 300, is the arch-enemy of Sonic the Hedgehog.
    10. Pac-Man: The Ghosts (aka Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) never rested, never slowed, they just got faster and faster.