Space Invaders destroy the Twin Towers at GC
At this year's Game Convention 2008 in Leipzig, French-American artist is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Tecmo's Space Invaders with an interactive exhibit featuring the pixelated extraterrestrial squids destroying the face of simulated World Trade Centers.
The World Trade Center attacks mark a deep cut in our recent history that is still being processed. The French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley has found an unusual – though obvious – metaphor with his work “Invaders!”, which is based on the 1978 arcade original. In his interactive large installation, the players must prevent the catastrophe by controlling the well- known cannon at the lower screen border with their bodies and firing it using arm movements. Like the original, this trial is ultimately unsuccessful, thus creating an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy. In this regard, Douglas Edric Stanley sees Space Invaders as “a social tale that can be related to historical tales without losing its poetic power” (D.E. Stanley).
There's a great deal of muttering about this being too soon and in bad taste, but I don't agree: while one can certainly disagree with the particulars of the artist's statement, the stated metaphor is both quasi-sensical (and, let's face it, rather fun) and relatively restrained. Artistic commentary on catastrophes like September 11th is the obligation of art, and making those commentaries fun should not necessarily be interpreted as irreverence to the tragedy. I'm not really on the same page as the artist, but it hardly strikes me as either tasteless or too soon.
Space Invaders WTC [GC via Kotaku via Gizmodo]
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It must be art. I don't understand it.
Given that we're already fighting a "war" on at least three fronts (at home, Afghanistan, and Iraq) and this "war" is taking a heavy toll on our civil liberties and on our society, I think saying that it's too soon is a load of bull.
I'm undecided on the effectiveness and artistic value of this particular endeavor, but given how art (specifically music) helped to shape our collective understanding and reaction to war during and after Vietnam, I think art definitely has a place in the discussion. Art (in all of it's forms) helps us parse events and situations and that can probably never come too soon.
I dunno, I do understand the importance of art and can certainly understand the statement he is trying to make (Thank my Girlfriend, the BFA major). However, I would have to say if I were one of the survivors or someone who lost a friend/relative in the tragedy, I would certainly see this as almost a trvializing of what happened that day.
@#3,
Very true, but how long is long enough so that everyone who was affected by it and lost family or friends is totally ok with discussions and artistic commentary about it?
If we're not waiting for everyone then what percentage are we looking for before it's ok?
Do we have to (or should we) stop things like this from coming out to spare someone's feelings given that we ended up going to war over 9/11 and causing the deaths of countless numbers of people as a result? If anything it seems like maybe we're not doing enough talking and analyzing and maybe there isn't enough being done to make people aware of how brutal and ugly war is.
I look around and we seem to be caught in this bizarre 1984-WWII-Vietnam situation where lots of people hate the war, lots of people (seem to) love the war and the government is doing it's best to make sure we stay out of it's way while it does it's thing.
As someone who watched it all on a roof by the east river in brooklyn, someone that knew people in the North Tower and someone that without a doubt will believe until the day I die that this was a controlled demolition, it is beyond time to approach this tragic event with artistic freedom.
Unfortunately the video game itself seems kind of trite and stale. A friend of mine painted this in 2005, is this too early?
http://www.waynecoe.com/paintings/pages/lenticular_coe.htm
it's actually a 3D lenticular print.
It's silly, and that's what it needs to be.
In the U.S., there's so much blind outrage/weepyness at the event that deep, thoughtful discussion becomes almost impossible.
It takes silly, semi-meaningless things like this to shake people out of that, and into discussing the more important factors.
Historians aren't going to remember it for the lives lost on that day, but for the political backlash that followed, most of which originated from the U.S.
Anyway, it could be worse - T-shirt hell used to have an "I (plane symbol) NY" shirt...
As far as I know, Tecmo had nothing to do with Space Invaders, as it was Taito who originally developed the game and released it in Japan.
For the curious: in recent years, Taito was bought out by Square Enix, so that the recent Space Invaders Extreme, an exciting and fun update to the classic game, was published by Square Enix, too.
@4 Aye, I do agree there should be open and honest dialouge about that day, as there has been precious little so far, other than the conspiracy theorists and the hawks using it as a justification for war. I guess I was just hoping for something a little less polarizing to help open the discussion. Of Course, nowadays I suppose that's the only way you can spur America into action, is by doing something jarring and somewhat extreme (as evidenced by our continuing financial crisis).
Tell us John Brownlee, how long would you need before you felt it would be appropriate to joke about your daughter's rape & subsequent murder? Do you think that seven years be enough ?
As someone who was in NYC on 9/11, I will say this offends me in no way.
You know what is offensive 7 years later? The fact that NYC is in a real estate/building boom and this whole city is being changed as we speak. But for one thing. The WTC site is STILL a huge hole in the ground and tons of "construction" workers on that site are still being paid.
THAT level of corruption and B.S. is offensive and an insult to anyone who lost family or friends on 9/11/2001.
@PMH- For him? Probably a long time. For other people? Whatever. Free country.
Humor and satire don't depend on everyone to "get" it for it to be valid.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -Voltaire
Seeing the WTC rise is one of my early memories. As a little boy and as a grown man I loved to stand at the corner of either one and look up to be consumed by a kind of reverse vertigo. Wife and I had drinks at Windows on the World right after getting married. Had friends and clients there on that day. I think this guy is a jerkwad for trivializing that event, but neither my anger nor his stupidity will bring people back.
@randalll: Point taken.