Stephanie

The "game" I chose was an art installation piece by Robert Praxmarer made in 2004 called (T)error. The person's movements are captured on camera and they are put into a game in whih they can choose Bush, Bin Laden, Tony Blair, different flags, etc to fill in their body shape.

Praxmarer writes: "The concept of the game is quite simple, the player first can choose his axe of evil, that means who he wants to be, like the countries contributed in the war, George Bush, Tony Blair, Bin Laden, etc., then the game starts and you have to grab for dollar signs and oil pumps, kill civilians and destroy their houses, which gets you score, on the other hand you have to avoid fighter planes, tanks and submarines.
For me it was a counterpoint to use a game as a platform for my work, because all the war, all the world politics is like a game as well. On the other hand console kiddies are playing “First Person Shooters” and aren’t interested in politics at all, so maybe I am able to reach them with my installation. Where they can play around and maybe get the point I am trying to state."

I think that this is an interesting idea but the game itself, at least from the video demonstrations, doesn't look compelling enough to make people really question the concepts of why we play games or why we engage in warfare. I do think it is interesting that you can choose to be any of these people and see that they are all sort of equally involved or "bad guys," if you will. But I don't think this game will speak to kids because how many kids make it to these gallery exhibitions, really?

http://www.servus.at/cubic/(t)error.htm