This series of works explores the concept and adopts the conventions, material practice and subject matter of the War Artist/Artist in residence.
The works were produced by becoming embedded and attached to a number of virtual online communities and environments and responding to them as a War Artist/ Artist in Residence would.
I chose to become attached to four main online communities and in so was able to explore these virtual environments in order to produce a series of sketches and paintings documenting my experiences and what I observed taking place.
The communities are living evolving and interactive virtual environments inhabited by people/characters operating in parallel to events and social constructs taking place in the real world.
The sites and environments included Americas Army (U.S. Military) a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter owned by the U.S. government and released as a global public relations initiative to present an image of the current U.S. Army and help with U.S. Army recruitment . In Americas Army I was able to visit the Middle East as it has been constructed and populated by the U.S. Military.
Under Ash ( Dar al- Fikr ) a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter released as a counterpoint to Americas Army. In Under Ash I was able to visit the Gaza strip as it has been constructed and populated by the groups ideologically dissimilar to the creators of Americas Army.
Food Force ( United Nations ) a tactical multiplayer first-person game released as a counterpoint to Americas Army and Under Ash. I was able to visit regions of Africa including Dafur and observe the Virtual United Nations food Program. I was able to visit the Africa as it has been constructed and populated by the United Nations
Foreign Ground ( Swedish National Defence College ) is a tactical multiplayer first-person non shooter . I was able to visit regions of Africa and Asia attached to a regiment of Virtual UN peacekeepers as it has been constructed and populated by the Swedish National Defence College .
Second Life (Linden Labs) is a virtual world with its own economy, society and a population larger than some real life countries. In Second Life, visitors create alternate virtual representations of themselves called avatars and interact in much the same way as real people. In Second Life I was able to observe an evolving society as it develops.
This series explores the subjective notion of reality as it exists in a constructed form online in virtual environments and societies that mirror desired or perceived realities.
