From Here:
I recently interviewed Wafaa Bilal, an Iraqi-American who teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago. He's currently part of an exhibit there called "Domestic Tension." There may be a lesson there for those who work in consolidated data centers.
Bilal moved his entire living room into the gallery and now spends 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over 30 days in an enclosed space, and his only companion is a paintball gun hooked up to a Web cam, which can be aimed and fired by people who go to a Web page.
And over the past 13 days, there have been over 6,500 shots taken at him. Some near his head - which, because he doesn't wear any protection other than goggles, can cause serious injury.
Even though shooting a man with a paintball gun over the Internet probably won't kill him, it seems to me to be more than art - but also a psychological test about the human condition. People who choose to aim and fire the gun at him are doing so knowing that they hurt him - but either they show no remorse when they inflict pain - a hypothesis that I'm not keen to accept but would be foolish to dismiss - or because the distance and remoteness of the location "on the Internet" is dehumanizing, and people do things anonymously behind an IP address that they'd never do when people can see your face.
Ahem, you can SHOOT HIM here.
http://www.networkperformancedaily.com/2007/05/interview_with_wafaa_bilal_les.html
and: http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/004261.html
I found this on another forum I frequent.
I recently interviewed Wafaa Bilal, an Iraqi-American who teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago. He's currently part of an exhibit there called "Domestic Tension." There may be a lesson there for those who work in consolidated data centers.
Bilal moved his entire living room into the gallery and now spends 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over 30 days in an enclosed space, and his only companion is a paintball gun hooked up to a Web cam, which can be aimed and fired by people who go to a Web page.
And over the past 13 days, there have been over 6,500 shots taken at him. Some near his head - which, because he doesn't wear any protection other than goggles, can cause serious injury.
Even though shooting a man with a paintball gun over the Internet probably won't kill him, it seems to me to be more than art - but also a psychological test about the human condition. People who choose to aim and fire the gun at him are doing so knowing that they hurt him - but either they show no remorse when they inflict pain - a hypothesis that I'm not keen to accept but would be foolish to dismiss - or because the distance and remoteness of the location "on the Internet" is dehumanizing, and people do things anonymously behind an IP address that they'd never do when people can see your face.
Ahem, you can SHOOT HIM here.
http://www.networkperformancedaily.com/2007/05/interview_with_wafaa_bilal_les.html
and: http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/004261.html
I found this on another forum I frequent.
