Domestic Tension

May 28th, 2007

TechnologyThe site wafaabilal.com lets you shoot someone over the Internet. Well, with paintballs, and he was born in Iraq.

It’s an art installation where the artist Wafaa Bilal is living in an enclosed gallery space for a month, while he’s shot at by people over the Internet via the above website. The website features a webcam (which the users control), video blog, and a chat area.

At its most basic it’s a crude commentary on the Iraq war, but also makes the analogy of anonymity on the Internet to our propensity to wage war overseas. We all know how the false shield of anonymity can bring out the worst behavior (most recently the Kathy Sierra incident). And expectedly, Bilal has been shot at 40,000 times so far.

The best way to keep yourself from shooting Wafaa Bilal is to watch some of his videos, some of which take place from within the room he’s living in. One’s behavior depends on their perspective.

Anyhow, I found the site worth checking out and reading some of the material generated so far, especially the depraved comments by our fellow Internet denizens.

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3 comments!

  1. comment Gravatar Elaine Vigneault - May 28th, 2007

    This is really interesting. Thanks for sharing the site. I think I might blog about it too. Thanks :)

  2. comment Gravatar Gunnin' for peace « John Wills Lloyd - May 29th, 2007

    [...] At Webomatica I learned that FlatFile Galleries has a list of coverage. Posted by John Lloyd Filed in [...]

  3. comment Gravatar Links | Elaine Vigneault’s diary - June 3rd, 2007

    [...] what he’s doing. And his video blog gives you a good idea of what’s going on. (Thanks Webomatica for the [...]

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