HalfLife

2001


s

Video Archive




A multi-channel video installation, HalfLife juxtaposes surveillance video of gamers playing the popular video game Counter-Strike with a live video feed of the gameworld in which they are playing. The players’ expressions are seen from the cross-hairs’ point of  view while the their virtual actions inside the gameworld unfold in a progressively more violent and graphic video spectacle. A virtual cycle of life unfolds as characters are killed in the game and disappear from the surveillance channel to be immediately replaced by the next player. The HalfLife installation included a third video channel of actual surveillance footage shot in a cyber-café in Garden Grove, California, where video surveillance systems were implemented by the City Council in 2004 to monitor a sudden increase in gang violence.

Three-channel DVD, color, sound. 9m41s., loop.

sdf Exhibitions & screenings

2004 Nevada Art Museum
Reno, Las Vegas

2004 Contemporary Arts Forum
Santa Barbara, California

2004 Orange County Biennial
Orange County Museum of Art
Newport, California

2003 Project Room
New Museum of Contemporary Art
New York, New York

2002 Christopher Grimes Gallery
Santa Monica, California

Collections

Institución Ferial de Madrid (IFEMA)
Madrid, Spain

Metronom Foundation for Contemporary Art
Barcelona, Spain

Selected press

New Museum
Marco Brambilla: Halflife

Artforum
Marco Brambilla: The Dark Lining