HalfLife

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.