War as Performance Art

"[W]e would drive into towns in Bosnia and find bodies crucified on the sides of barns or decapitated, burned and mutilated. That is why those slain in combat are treated as trophies by their killers, turned into grotesque pieces of performance art."Chris Hedges qouted in Malou Innocent Fabricated Myths about War

Chapter 4 Section 2- Local responses to global power: At the cusp of boundaries

Chris Salter argues in his paper"THE KULTURSTAAT IN THE TIME OF EMPIRE Notes on Germany Thirteen Years After"(1) that

"capitalism “produces producers.” In short, in bioproduction, capitalism is the ultimate autopoietic machine. It not only produces commodities, it produces new forms of subjectivities and social relations to consume and reproduce these commodities, constructing and catalyzing economic, social, and cultural life in an endless self- reproducing cycle.(Salter p.2)"

His discussion centers on the decline of state support for culture— he focuses on both 'prestige ' institutions and more challenging organisations in the realm of performance, such as the Deautsche opera and the Frankfurt ballet—and how this is an aesthetic response to global capitalism. While allowing that this has challenged German cultural practices, heavily dependent on state sponsorship, Salter argues that a new generation of german artist is now embracing  "DIY" artistic practices(Salter p. 13). To be sure he also presents resistances from the kulturstat which both rejects 21st century artistic practice and defends a 19th century sensibility that suggests these new practices and the economic milieu out of which it arises as "American"(Salter p.9-10).

This critic of new artistic practices is not essentially supported by Salter's analysis. He suggests that these resistances are both restrictive, as they ignore the current social environment, and counterproductive to artistic goals that challenge and supersede the concept of Empire as a monolithic structure that endlessly encompasses what various discussions, including his, Hart and Negri's and seminally, Michel Foucault's, as biopower. Salter asserts that biopower can indeed turn and rupture the apparently all-encompassing force of Empire  and that examples of that  demonstrate how. The scope of his paper, however does not give detailed analysis of how such ruptures are achieved.

His specific examples include works by German director/artist Christoph Schlingensief, such as Church of Fear, presented at the Venice Biennale of 2003. Functioning both in (experimental) theatre, political theater(Schlingensief ran for Chancellor in 2000) and experimenting with 'low culture'(does that include mass market video game?) this German artist presents a specific example of art work that moves beyond early modern models of artistic production into more contemporary situations. As salter puts it "Schlingensief’s blend of political/aesthetic action combined with popular entertainment and trash culture embodies much of what is common across the Berlin performance and visual art worlds. Soap operas, TV talk shows and the like provide the content and context for many “off theatre” and performance troupes who exist outside of the stadttheater scene as well as for the less established visual arts scene."(Salter p. 12)
Looking closely at Schlingensief's body of work, we see similarities in his concerns between regional interpretations of state power, with Schlingensief's work rooted in German concerns as Bilal's are in Iraq, but both addressing American expressions of power in an age of global capital.


including avoiding the triumphalism of what is often characterised as American capitalism that seems to arise within the critique of that economic system when we look at writings about Empire.










__________________________
(1)Salter, Chris. "The Kulturstaat in the Time of Empire: Notes on Germany Thirteen Years After"
 in PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, PAJ 77 (Volume 26, Number 2), May 2004, pp. 1-15

Chapter 4 Section 1- Thinking About Producing An Artistic Space

Boundary objects create a space for interactions between groups

Bilal's enunciated goal for Domestic Tension was to create a space of conversation. The production of space is much the focus of French philosopher Henri Lefebvre. lefebvre's thought contends that social spaces are specific to the societie that produce them. Thus in Bilal's case, his space of conversation, in sofar as he creates it, is much a product of the society out of which creates it. This apparent tautology in Lefebvre's case indicates some of the limitations of using his philosophies of spaciality to describe Domestic Tension. In Bilal's case his performance approaches space that includes and transcends virtual versus embodied space. This porosity between screen space and embodied space occurs through boundary objects. The discussion of boundary objects, a concept originally developed by sociologist Susan “Leigh” Star and philosopher James R. Griesemer, posits objects(which can include items such as the paintball gun robot of Bilal's performance, ideas and people) can have multiple and vary significances which none-the-less allow different groups of people to interact. This concept has bearing on the actor-network Theory of Bruno Latour and John Law, amongst others, as their theories grant agency to objects commonly thought of as being inanimate. This notion significantly can create a particular aesthetics, especially for interactive performances. Some criticisms of boundary objects have been raised by Charlotte P. Lee, who argues that the boundary object concept inadequately describes the relationships between groups and writes "Theories are needed to explain how collaborators from different communities of practice, that lack pre-existing standards, use material artifacts to collaborate."(Lee p. 314). These negotiated boundaries, boundaries which in this case are present in virtual spaces in the case of Bilal's performance, provide a theoretical hinge for discussing performance art, including those performative arenas we can refer to as digital games. The immediate implications for Domestic Tensions I will discuss in the final, concluding  chapter of this thesis. Some more general questions raised by this discussion I will elaborate here.

________________________
Lee, Charlotte P. "Boundary Negotiating Artifacts: Unbinding the Routine of Boundary Objects and Embracing Chaos in Collaborative Work" in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (2007) 16:307–339

Chapter 2 -Section 2 Goya and the framing of violence and protest

Francisco Goya, The Third of May 1808,
1814, Oil on canvas, 268 × 347 cm image source: Wikipedia

The face of the defenceless in the face of violence has a particular poignancy. As works of art, both Wafaa Bilal's Domestic Tension and Francisco Goya's share some similarity, in as much as they take a stand against war, especially against the toll paid by non-combatant's caught in zones of conflict. However, the differences in content and form suggest differing forms of resistance from two artists separated by time, but united in an opposition to militarism. Where as Bilal's performance put a true non-combatant(he had fled conscription into the Iraqi army) in the line of fire, his performance was strongly inspired by the death of his brother, who was manning a check point barricade, defending his community, when he was killed by a missile strike from a U.S. Army helicopter(1). The civilians portrayed in Goya's painting were in fact local militia, who had defended Madrid against the invading troops of Napoleon. Goya, like Bilal almost two centuries later, found himself living with in the regime that killed his loved ones, as Goya was appointed to create paintings for the puppet king Joseph the first(2).
These two artists, Bilal and Goya, share a fraught relationship with the respective invaders of their countries, as Bilal fled to the freedom that the USA offers, especially in comparison to the ba'thist regime of Iraq, and Goya like many artists and intellectuals of his time believed that Napoleon would disseminate the enlightened goals presented by the French revolution(3). In that case, Napoleon's machinations- He had convinced the Spanish monarch to ally against Portugal. King Ferdinand was deposed and fled when he realised the French had no intention of leaving. It was only after the defeat of the Napoleon's armies in the Peninsular war that Ferdinand regained his throne. A despot himself, it is not clear that there was a material improvement for the majority of Spaniards. Indeed, Allegory of the City (1810 oil on canvas) was originally painted during the French occupation, and art historian Sarah Symmons notes that the painting was modified several times to reflect political changes(4). For example, inscriptions portrayed on a large lozenge to the upper right of the painting. The changes honoured the Spanish constitution imposed by the French king, Joseph Bonaparte, and then the subsequent restoration of the Bourbon monarchy lead to additional changes representing the concurrent changes of the Spanish constitution, until finally the inscription honours the Spanish insurrection of the 2nd of May, 1808.

Symmons notes that the image of the Third of May, 1808 does not show partisans of the Iberian peninisula, from whom the term guerilla originally arose, as warriors but rather as casualties and victims(5) that perhaps reflected Ferdinand the Vlll's desire to quell any popular resistance to his autocratic regime(6). Indeed, the central figure has a obviously Christ-like pose, suggesting sorrow and terror rather than stoicism or defiance. The communication of a loathing for war would be more poignantly realised in Goya's The Disasters of War(1810-1815) etchings, with their often macabre and grotesque portrayal of the brutalities of war, especially on the civilian population. In that respect, Goya and Bilal follow interesting but divergent trajectories that none the less offer a resistance to the political power that ultimately be said to have supported them. Goya's sympathy for the Spanish resistance is tempered by his portrayal of the violence committed by the respective regimes of Joseph Bonaparte then the Bourbon Ferdinand, though both were his patrons at some point in time. Bilal's open dialogue of Domestic Tensions, with its illusions to First Person Shooters (but a mechanic more closely adhering to the early NES game, Duck Hunt) gives way to his portrayal of himself as a Saladin-like character in his video-game-based performance work, Virtual Jihadi, where he embraces a more violent representation of himself as an islamic guerilla, rather than a non-combatant. These different trajectories perhaps reflect the nature of power as it is exercised in a modern constitutional democracy versus an autocratic monarchy. The choice of art works reflects the means offered by the productive capabilities of a essentially pre-industrial culture versus that of a post-modern, digital society. How we can analysis the means by which an artwork interacts with its artist and audiences I will explore in chapter 4.

___________________________
(1) Bilal & Lyderson
(2)Vega, Jesusa "Dating and Interpretation of Goya's Disasters of War" in Print Quarterly, 1994 p.3
(3)Bareau, Juliet Wilson. Goya's Prints, The Tomás Harris Collection in the British Museum. British Museum Publications, 1981.
(4) Symmons, Sarah. Goya. Phaidon, 1998 p.234
(5) Symmons, Sarah, p.TK
(6) Boime, Albert Art in the Age of Bonapartism 1800-1815. Chicago and London. U Chicago Press.1990

Chapter 2 Section 1 redux- Art and firepower

Wafaa Bilal's memoir  Shoot an Iraqi features the subtitle Life, Art and Resistance Under the Gun. This gives a clue to his explicit goals and also the historical place his work fits into. The portrayal of violence in visual culture dates back to the earliest extant paintings we know of such as images of hunting found in the cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira. Images of archers in Classical Greek pottery are some of many found through out antiquity. But the particular significance of these images lies in their political or religious elements of the time. The celebration of the hunt, as portrayed in the images found in rock paintings dating back some 40 000 years, or the celebration of military victories, as often portrayed in Hellenic pottery are two examples of early missile weapons and the significance granted them. This significance is changed when we consider paintings such as Francisco Goya's(1746-1836)' The Executions of the Third of May 1808(1). which portrayed the massacre of Spaniards by occupying French troops during the Peninsular War. This portrayal of the unarmed citizenry against the troopers of a then powerful French empire seems to echo in the mechanism of Domestic Tensions, with its unarmed protagonist  facing an armed audience. A century later, Picasso's Guernica would make a similar protest against  an attempted imperial power, as the Luftwaffe was deployed against the civilian population in the town of Guernica as part of the fascist terror campaign against the Republican forces during the Spanish civil war. The editorial element, if I may describe the subjective elemnt of these art works, contrast with the formal elements found in the endurance based performance work of Vito Acconci and more specifically, the Work of Chris Burden. Burden's infamous performance Shoot of 1971 shows the artist being shot with  .22 calibre rifle at close range, and the performance was recorded on film. Many of his subsequent performances dealt with similar tests of his physical limits, such as Transfixed(1974) where he was nailed, crucifixion-style to the hood of a Volkswagon Beetle or Doomed(1975) where he lay beneath a sheet of glass until a random observer interfered with the piece (a security guard moved a pitcher of water to with in Burden's reach, causing him to end the piece after 45 hours).

Shoot was performed infront of a small group of invited friends(2) at F Space gallery in Santa Ana, California(3).

(1) Francisco Goya The Executions of the Third of May 1808. Oil on Canvas 1814

(2) Tumlir, Jan. "Chris Burden - First Break" in Art Forum, Dec 2001 downloaded from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_4_40/ai_80856183/    19 November 2010

(3)Horvitz, Robert. "Chris Burden" in Artforum magazine, Volume XIV No. 9 (May 1976).pages 24-31. downloaded 19 November 2010

Chapter1 Section 5 Spaces of Conflict within Empire

Bilal describes his reaction to a 2007 TV interview with a young soldier who operated a robotic drone from her base in Colorado(1). She trusted the information and orders that she received causing her to launch missile attacks or guide other aircraft to attacks the targets she had acquired. This in turn filled Bilal with feelings of hatred and rage, as a similar remotely guided attack had killed his brother Haji. Yet, Bilal was able to reflect that these were "mostly just kids caught up in a cycle of greed and power they don't understand"(2)

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri offer an analysis of this when the assert "the passage to  post-modernity  and Empire prohibits any such compartmentalization of the life world and immediately presents communication, production and life as one complex whole, an open site of conflict"(3) Hardt and Negri see this conflict as a creative militancy linked to biopower and as such inevitably functions within a world that knows no outside(4). Thus this attachment to the means of production means that the resistance of Bilal's 'virtual human shield' is analogous to the deployment of young cyber soldiers, as with the young drone pilot just mentioned. 

Empire is greatly predicated on production becoming the result of communication and on the absorption of  all spaces into Empire(5). In contrast to traditional Marxist analysis, Hardt and Negri assert there are no exterior spaces for capitalism to exploit; rather it must create new spaces within itself. However, the possibility of these spaces also offer a place for the "uncontainable rhizomes" through which the Multitude reappropriates fresh spaces that realise the desire of the multitude to construct concurrent freedoms(6). Hardt and Negri present the movement of workers from Mexico into the USA as an example of the contradictions of Empire, in that it requires the labour to function, but can only attempt to control it by rendering it illegal(7). At the same time they characterise the free circulation of biopower, of the proletariat, of people as a fundamental freedom desired by the multitude. Thus the networks of biopower serves both Empire and the Multitude that resists it.
 





1. Bilal p.10
2. ibid
3. Hardt, Michael &Antonio Negri.  Empire, Harvard UP, Cambridge, Mass & London, 2000. p. 404
4. ibid p. 413 
5. ibid p. 404
6. ibid p. 397
7. ibid p. 399

Chapter2 Section 1

The list of some writers who have bearing on an explanation of how Domestic Tension relates to space and virtuality has to start with Wafaa Bilal and his cowriter Kari Lyderson who together wrote his memoir of the piece, his biography and his subsequent work in the book Shoot an Iraqi: life art and resistance under the gun. In the service of thepiecew however, we can also consider the primary sources in the chat room exchanges between Bilal and those that viewed the piece via the internet. Another primary source is the video blogs that Bilal eventually posted to youtube, creating a secondary channel for discussion and contact as the piece proceeded and continued the dialogue after the primary action of the piece had ended. The allusion of the piece to video games can be followed through the lenses provided by Johan Hhuizinga, specifically in his book Homo Ludens, and subsequent writers Nick Dyer-Witheford & Greig de Peuter who discuss the relevance of Digital games to global capitalism.Their work is based on the writing of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, specifically in their book Empire and their subsequent volumes, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire and  Commonwealth. Hardt and Negri's discussion of Empire as they term the space created by globalised capitalism, can be further unpacked via Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space. 

Chapter 1 Section 4- Spaces between Comfort and Conflict

Wafaa Bilal speaks about the contrast of  space of comfort and the space of conflict. His displacement of virtual and physical presence reflects his experience, throughout his life, of being in overlapping zones of conflict. From his early childhood, with his often violent father, to his neighbourhood that became increasingly divided by religious factionalism, through the internal violence of Iraq's repressive Ba'athist regime, to Iraq's external conflict with Iran, Kuwait and the American lead coalition. Yet as an emigre, and a university Professor, he now resides in what is ostensibly a zone of comfort. Yet he finds that zone troubling, partially because so few others recognise it as such(1). So his work seems to often involve placing the audience as an active participant within an unfamiliar setting. He deliberately chose to set up Domestic Tension as a performance that requires spectator involvement, that subverts expectations of a triple A first person shooter game and that creates a space for those who might normally ignore or simply denigrate conceptual and performance-based art. That he can cross these ideological divides suggests how in the age of Empire, typical moves to create space as a project of 21st century capitalism can be resisted, subverted or evaded. At the same time, Bilal's project is very much a product of twenty first century US culture, with it's references to digital games, paintball and internet sociality.

Bilal explicitly opposed didactic readings of his work(2). He did not ban people who posted vicious words, although he did restrict players who attempted to alter the physical operation of the paintball gun,  effectively turning it into a machine-gun for example. That the rules were simple- fire the paintball gun if you want, hit want you  can and write what you will in the chat-room- left space for many different responses.

1. Bilal p. 
2. Bilal p.

Chapter1 Section2- Who is Wafaa bilal?

Wafaa Bilal is assistant Arts Professor in the department of Photography and Imaging at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. His works span from paintings and drawings he did in his native Iraq through to performances such as Domestic Tension, Virtual Jihadi and his latest work ....And Counting. In his memoir Shoot An Iraqi, he recounts how his early works were often aimed against the oppression of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and the violence that plagued Iraq both from the outside- the Iran/Iraq war, gulf wars 1 & 2- and the internecine violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims as well as violence against opponents to the regime which in turn exploited these conflicts to maintain its grip on political power. Bilal's art works, often critical of the Iraqi government eventually caused a reaction from the state that forced Bilal to flee for his life first to a Saudi refugee camp, then eventually to the United States, where he continued his studies of art.

Bilal was born in Kufa, Iraq in 1966. The third of 7 childrenCK, he attended Baghdad university, majoring in Geology although his efforts were primarily focused on painting. These paintings were often critical of the Baathist regime, and Bilal would hide them, for example, by rolling up the canvasses and storing them within hollow bedposts(1). Several of the shows he put on during that period were closed by the regimes security apparatus(2). Paintings as innocuous, in the Canadian context, as portraying people living in poverty, were seen as anti-government, with some of them being seized(3).

Bilal publicly refused to volunteer for military service with the threat of an American lead coalition looming as a result of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, in 1991( p.68) After leaving Bagdad University, lest he "disappear" as other dissident students had, Bilal fled Iraq, eventually being interned at a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia. There he attempted to continue painting, despite the declining conditions and threats of rape and abuse at the hands of the Saudi guards. He and his brother, Alaa were granted refugee status, arriving in the United States in September, 1992. He would subsequently enroll in the school of Arts at the University of New Mexico.

Bilal's artistic production after leaving Iraq dealt with such themes as violence and dehumanisation as in his Honours exhibit Sorrow of Baghdad. This gallery installation used the sounds of a baby crying from within a coffin, a be-suited pig laughing at short videos and a room with the faces of Iraqis trapped in a space, with the only exit a window looking out onto a battlefield.( ) His subsequent works include The Absinthe Drinker(200TK), which would electronically insert the gallery spectator into the digital frame, causing the central figure to become animated and react to the movement of the spectator. This general approach would be repeated in The Bar of the Follie Bergeres(200TK), and One Chair(200TK). In each case, the work makes a direct reference to an antecedent art work; those on the impressionists, in the first two cases, and to DaVinci's The last Supper, in the case of one chair. All of them allow the visitor/spectator to interact with the work, and in the case of The Bar of the Follie Bergeres have a presence with in the frame. This would become even more actualised in Domestic Tensions.


1966 Born, Kufa , Iraq p.5
1968 Ba’ath party stages coup, taking power in Iraq p.34

1979 Age 13 Bilal makes a stand against his Father’s violent temper and increasingly violent behavior.   When his father shatters a plate over Bilal’s head, he seizes a shard a chases his father out of the house and locks him out. p.23

1979 Saddam Hussein becomes President of Iraq
September 1980 Iraq invades Iran, ostensibly as a result of an Iranian assassination attempt on foreign Minister Aziz. Iraq moves to seize oil rich areas, strategic canals and supress the spread of the shiite Islamic revolution from Iran to the Shiite majority in Iraq.p.39

August 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait

Bilal publicly refuses to volunteer for military service- leaves University and 
flees repercussions. p.68

January 1991- American forces begin bombing campaign against cities and military in Iraq

February 1991- American ground forces invade Kuwait and attack Iraqi troops. Iraqi troops withdraw from Kuwait after 100hour campaign.

Kurds and Shiites rebel against Sadaam’s rule. The baathist regime brutally supressed the rebels with helicopters, artillery and ground troops (fixed-wing aircraft were grounded by American decree)
Bilal travels to the Kuwait border to shelter in refugee camp at Safwan. He fled the regime’s pogrom against dissidents and the actual military force used against perceived rebel communities p.99-100
1991 Arrives in refugee camp.p. Experience of seeing of abuse, rape and murder by Saudi guards which leads to uprising in spring 1992.p.123 & 135
September, 1992 Leaves Saudi Arabia p.141
Arrives in America
Enrolls in UofNM p.
Honours thesis was interactive exhibit p

“Absinthe Drinker” wins award from New  Mexico museum of Art
Iraq invades Kuwait

1999 Bilal graduates from University of New Mexico with BFA.p.

US and Coalition invade Iraq

2003 Graduated with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
 
December 2003 Sadaam is captured by US forces in Iraq.

2004 Brother, Haji killed in American airstrike. His father dies three months later, 
from grief.p.125

Bilal's artistic production after leaving Iraq dealt with such themes as violence and dehumanisation as in his Honours exhibit Sorrow of Baghdad. p.

Writing about Bilal's personal history and that of Iraq which is intertwined with it is grueling. The brutality on all levels is highly disturbing, as is the collusion with western powers in such atrocities as the Halabja massacre of 1988. I will leave the editing for tomorrow.

1. Bilal & Lyderson p. 64

2. ibid p. 64

3. ibid p. 65

tk http://www.wafaabilal.com/html/sorrowBaghdad.html

Chapter1 Section 3 How Wafaa Bilal creates spaces for discussion of the political issues his work addresses.

A significant theme that Bilal annunciates through out Domestic Tensions is his wish to "Keep the conversation going"(1). While the second Gulf War has provoked highly polarised rhetoric within the United States and between the citizens of it's allies, who have mostly opposed the invasion of Iraq, actual debate has been relatively absent, with few cases of either side expressing respect for the other's opinion. In that respect, Bilal's paint ball project has been highly successful, in that it drew people into contact that would have been unlikely to ever interact, let alone discuss the issue. It would be a gross mistake to assume these conversations were uniformly measured, thoughtful and polite. However, these chatroom conversations did place people with a position on the violence and significance of the American invasion of Iraq in touch with each other. Some would use these chatroom spaces to hurl racist epithets and jingoistic rants at Bilal and those others in the chatroom who opposed the war in Iraq. But verbal abuse is as much a part of what Bilal refers to as a zone of conflict(2) as mental and physical abuse. 

This contrast that Bilal draws, between the zone of conflict and that of comfort is central to his artistic choice. He wants to place himself, living a comfortable life as an academic and artist in a large US city, again in a zone of conflict as a means of expressing solidarity with his family who would not or could not leave Iraq(3). More over, he has written that this performance was intended to provoke a crisis for those residing in a zone of comfort "shielded from the actual horrors of" the campaign in Iraq(4). As his biography makes clear, he is no stranger to threats of violence and intimidation, through the wars, repression and bigotry he has encountered both with in and with out Iraq as well as his home town of Kufa and even his own home there.


Yet this space of conflict he had created, by providing a means of committing physical violence, via the paintball gun, a means of discussion via the internet and within the gallery space, itself, and by means of spectators viewing his Youtube blogs and the media reports generated, has allowed communication to take place that would have otherwise been unlikely to have happened.

Comments like:
"Make that chair spin"
FIRE!!!!
fuckin' Iraqis

contrasted with:
Peace to you and your people, Wafaa
This guy has heart
Don't shoot him, he's fucking human being!!

The expansion of the discussion space arose when the popular internet reference site, DIGG.com picked up on the performance via an article in the Chicago Tribune. This reference in DIGG lead to a geometrical increase in visitors to the Domestic Tension website, as the more people drawn to the site via DIGG in turn "digged" the story, pushing it up to the top of the lists, leading more people to encounter and explore the story(5). This social networking operated in concert with Bilal's attempt to create a community, although I sense that this was serendipitous as he more straightforwardly publicised his performance in atypical websites(for a high art project) of paintballnation.com. The net result was over 80 million hits, from 136 countries during the course of the performance(6). Ascribing the quality of space to a chatroom, the quality community to people who may be shooting at you, and the quality of discussion to among other things a low velocity projectile fired at one's body may seem to be stretching the definitions of these terms. But the relationship of these terms to Bilal's performance may be better understood if we look at both Bilal, and his companion-for that is how he came to describe the paintball gun(7)- as boundary objects.

A boundary object is

"both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and the constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites...They have different meanings in different social worlds but their structure is common enough to more than one world to make them recognizable, a means of translation"(8)

This concept was developed by Susan L. Star and James R. Griesemer as way of considering how different social groups, and their members might interact using an object that carries different significances how either group. Thus the paintball gun might be perceived simultaneously as a weapon, an art object, a threat a toy depending on the social milieu of the person activating it. At the same time, Bilal himself, appearing rather like a non-player character(an NPC, essentially a "robot" simulating a person, animal, monster or some other agent in a digital game) functions as a boundary object: at once an artist, a target, a human being and so on. This multitude of meanings allowed different participants to be drawn into the performance without immediately confronting a didactic message that might have caused those opposed to Bilal's anti-war stance or those unfamiliar with contemporary art practices to remain disengaged from the discussion of the Iraq war and the common lack of engagement with the broad and profound implications of a military conflict. He recounts how he was an anti-war symbol, a target for hateful bigots, entertainment and company for the bored, lonely or flirtatious, or topic for academic and philosophical discussion, among other roles(9).

A common response was for participants to fire a paintball round at Bilal, then often feel guilt and then engage in conversation. Obviously, some participants simply enjoyed the anonymous physical and mental abuse that they could express. The degree to which this was prevalent rather shocked Bilal(10). Yet the variety of peoples comments and responses suggests how successfully he engaged large numbers of people in what Henri Lefebvre would call a "representational space, embodying complex symbolisms...linked to the clandestine...side of social life, as also to art"(11). Lefebvre's conception of space includes art works, as well as architectural structures, that hide power relations. How Bilal's project negotiates these spaces I will discuss in depth in Chapter 4 of this thesis.


1. Bilal explicitly states this during the video blogs of days'

2. Bilal & Lyderson p.4.

3. ibid p.11

4. ibid p.1

5. ibid p. 79

6. ibid p.xvi

7. Bilal, Wafaa (mewafaa)The paint ball project day 10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz6zAwrkolc accessed 2010-08-27 11:55:53 Bilal also mentions this on page 93, during the day 16 section of Shoot An Iraqi.
 
8. Star, Susan Leigh  and James R. Griesemer. "Institutional Ecology, 'Translations' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39" in Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Aug., 1989), pp. 387-420

9. Bilal & Lyderson p. 110


10. ibid p.78


11. Lefebvre, Henri The Social Production of Space. Blackwell, 1991 p.33

Reflections on the First Draft of Chapter 3- The Spectacle and the Mundane

I have just finished going over the video blog that Wafaa Bilal used to document but also to communicate his performance. One issue that I will now grapple with is how do we consider the video blog. Is it peripheral to the performance, or is it intrinsic? How do we consider the role of documentation, especially when we can simultaneously record and transmit events?

the amusement that other felt as they watched a brief clip from the last day, belies the level of endurance required for this piece. My sense of Bilal is that he must be a natural humorous and optimistic man. this perhaps masks the duress that he was under for the thirty one days he lived and performed domestic tension. That is another question, and has broader implications for aesthetics in a virtualised world.

At what point can we say Bilal was living and at what pints was he performing? can we suggest the long term effecxts on him- depression, PTSD and physical symptoms- become a way of defining a performance slipping into the mundane? The mundane, as I use it here, is to differentiate from the spectacle. Rather than a pejorative implying boredom, I use "mundane" to denote the activities of life that are not conducted simply as a means of conscious self expression. Thus when Bilal scratches his beard, it is not necessarily performative as when he addresses the camera.This is not a strict binary, but rather I see it as a plenum, with "spectacle" being the extreme of expression, where the action only exists as a concious act of self expression meant for others to see and react to and the mundane, that which is lived without regard(perhaps, making a cup of tea while home alone).

My definition of spectacle is perhaps the hardest one to make because it ruptures if we consider that spectacle is part of life, especially for socially constructed classes of professional performers. At what point does the performance artist, the politician or the prostitute go outside their lives?These performances on a social level at least partly define the person doing them.

Youtube Video- The Paint Ball Project The Last Day...and the Gun is Silent

The final day of the project, and the video begins with the steady rhythm of the gun firing like a clock. Bilal is typing at his computer, and we can see the gun in the mid ground and a photographer in the fore ground. This video is unusual because Bilal is not holding the camera. He says "17 seconds" then leaves the computer and crouches under the guns arc of fire and makes his way to the back of the gun. Others count down with him. The gun fires a few more round, then Bilal pulls the plug, and declares "the gun is silent!".

Bilal stands up right to receive applause, and thanks those there and others. he asks if anyone is outside. He says the project was a tribute to all the Iraqi citizens and all the American soldiers who lost their lives. "We have silenced one gun today, and in the future we hope to silence all the guns" The camera pans across a small crowd of supporters and journalists who applaud him

The video cuts to bilal with his usual greeting of "Hey everybody is Wafaa". in the background their are sounds of  a party. Behind him is the yellow wall with he paint covered plywood panels. "He says' The confinement is over" and thanks his audience for "keeping the hope alive" and talking and interacting with him. He walks outside. He passes through party goers"hey it's a great crowd "wow, I promise you I wont cry as he steps outside the gallery after thirty one days inside. "It's great to be alive. It's fantastic to think and reflect."

"Please keep the conversation going" saying the piece was an open narrative. He thanks the virtual human shield, all the participants and standing in the gallery parking lot, signs off the last video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDZM4AooEv0

Youtube Video- The Paint Ball Project Day 30

Day 30



Day thirty of the paintball project begins with aclose up of the gun cycling through firing several pain bnalls. The video then cuts to Bilal, he notes the server is very busy, perhaps because it is the last day of the project. however he announces he will extend the project one more day.

He says this extra day is dedicated to those who said he could not complete the project. He then thanks his supporters. He says the project has had both "highs and low" and hads both united and divided people.

He goes on to say that art is supposed to "inform, agitate and be part of life". He says he has no resentment towards the people who shot. "It is an encounter, and open narrative- it is not a didactic piece." said Bilal.

He says he is in great spirits although the project has had an impact on his physical and mental health. He says good bye, saying" it has been a great journey". The camera cuts from him to the little figure of him, and the words " K TNX bye" type across the screen.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtvvVbeaSHk&feature=related

Youtube Video- The Paint Ball Project Day 29

Day 29 is a silent 4minutes and seven second photo montage from the previous 28 days of the performance. Ii shows Bilal cleaning and maintaining the gun. and the objects within the space. In some respects, this video is more revealing as it reveals the material experience more than Bilal's words which belie the talking head image of most of the documentary video's.


The immediate sense is how virtually everything is covered with wet paint. This doesn't come through in most of the videos, but it is obvious the yellow room must be virtually impossible to clean. The effect of living in that environment was very wearing. Also striking is the care Bilal had to lavish on the gun which is emphasised in the photographs which show him stripping and cleaning it, leaving it gleaming, while the environment around it is filthy.

The final image is a smiling caricature of Bilal waving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0NR_pITj0c

Youtube Video- The Paint Ball Project Day 28

Bilal greets us noting is is feeling well mentally, after getting four and ahalf hours sleep. He mentions that he had not slept for 48 hours prior to that except for a couple of hours.

Physically he described having strong pains in his abdomen. He demonstrates how he must crawl to avoid the gun. He explains he is going to lie down and hopes he feels better. As he moves through the gallery space, he says that he is bothered by the lack of physical activity due to his restriction to the gallery space. He lies down on the floor beside a sunny window. He lifts his goggles then says he normally exercises at least an hour a day. But he reflects that he hasn't the freedom to do this. This freedom is so important, he continues, and he has learned to "cherish it" and the small comforts as a result of this project. he then signs off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAi5Agm_idM

Youtube Video- The Paint Ball project Day 27

This video begins oddly, with Bilal apparently signing off after saying the day had been very quiet, and he liked that.The then video cuts to him now in goggles  in the yellow room greeting us to day 27 of the project. He mentions they have received a box and inside it is a potted plant. Bilal smiles broadly as it is carried into frame. then appears to get choked up. He then says"I am overwhelmed". He pans the camera away from his face towards his helper who is unwrapping the plant. She smiles towards the camera as she holds up the plant, which appears to be about 30cm tall.

Bilal pans the camera back towards his face. "Wow, what a great gift! Who ever you are...this gives me so much hope" Said Bilal. He is again smiling broadly, even as a paintball round rings out in the background. He pans the camera wildly, as he meant to turn it off or hadn't turned off. We over hear him say the plant will go on his desk where"they can see it but not shoot it". he then turns back towards his face. We can see the leaves of the plant at the edge of the frame as Bilal holds it. He holds back sobs as he says"I am extremely touched". "I am not gonna let any one shoot it". Morgan returns saying there is a card in the box. Bilal asks her to read it. Morgan reads

"Dear Wafaa, We are saddened by the assault on your plant and on you. So may this peace Lily be some sort of comfort for you in your project. Be well and wishing you and all of us peace, "Milane and Jason". Wow, very touching" Bilal says again. He had noted the previous plant had been killed by the constant paintball fire. He then makes his way through the firing zone, crouched down and carrying the plant. he adjusts his goggles and says" this is extremely touching" again. His breath is laboured as moves crouched over. He stops to address the camera again and heaves a heavy sigh. Behind his goggles we can see he is blinking back tears. He says "I am so happy to see...the goodness in humanity. He glances away from the camera and is silent for a few seconds then sighs again and returns his gaze to the camera. The camera pans away then cuts. In the last 5 seconds of the day's video, we see Bilal rubbing his eyes and crying.

Youtube video- The Paint Ball Project day 26

Bilal greets his audience at about one o'clock in th e afternoon  with about 125 people logged on. He says about 36 people are doing "left action" turning the gun into the left corner of the space. He says that this action had come to be called "Virtual human shield" in the chat room. This prevents people from shooting at him. It had frustrated many people. Bilal says he will not interfere with the gun, whether it is pointed towards him or away. If it is just pressing the button, then it is part of the performance vs a coding trick, like the early days on the project when MIT students hacked the server and fired the paintball gun like a machine gun.

The action had reduced the rate of fire. The additional chat room activity Bilal describes as pleasant.

When he returns, he mentions it is abouit three in the afternoon. He notes he has gained a lot of weight. He found he was eating constantly perhaps from depression, as well as gaining weight from lack of exercise.

he also mentions that additonal paint balls would be delivered, with his supply running out.

When he returns he said that their is less firing and more chat and more of the virtual human shield or "turning left". He introduces a visitor, Beverly Nelson and found the performance online on Memorial day and said she entered a chat room for the first time and discovered she could turn the gun away from Bilal. She compliments me for his passion and endurance as he uses performance art "to make a statement". She thanks wafaa and those "clicking to the left." Bilal thanks her then chokes up. he clears his throat as he says "it is another act of the community" that warms his heart. "It gives me hope" He says then signs off until later in the day.

In the next segment, he continues interviewing Nelson. she brings him clean socks, M&M's and hot sauce. Nelson chuckles as she says she noticed he had one white sock and one black sock when she watched him via the internet. He says he hadn't noticed that he was wearing mis-matched socks. He notes how privacy has gone and he wants to call attention to that. As he signs off for the day, Bilal notes how happy he is "to be part of this community".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr9Y9suPyOc

Youtube Video- The Paint Ball Project Day 25

Bilal greets his audience saying the volume of fire has been very heavy, and again, from global visitors. The biggest problem of the day was that the rapid rate of fire, with shots being fire sometimes less than a second apart,was the supply of paint balls had been almost exhausted. He had sent a friend to the paintball store to try and obtain more, his usual supplier having run out of stock.

Following up on the previous days report, he notes that thousands of rounds had been expended the previous day. He walks through the gallery space behind the camera and pans over the stacked boxes now empty of paintballs. Due to supply problem he considered switching to rubber or plastic balls. As he pans and moves we have a more complete sense of the gallery space, with the gun, the doorway into the yellow room and the computer monitor where he works. He notes that people(presumably online) mentioned that the camera on the gun had shifted so that the barrel was no longer centered. He demonstrates how he has turned the computer monitor so that he can see how the gun camera is aligned on the barrel. He then pans up and to the right so we can see his hand adjusting the gun camera. The gun is still moving and firing as he attempts the adjustment.


"There are people dedicated to moving the gun away to the left" says Bilal. "That is very heart touching" he says. he goes on to say that many people are participating with the chat room, and many are simply panning the gun but not firing. He says bye for now and the segment ends.

When the video resumes Bilal says it is Lunch time and he pans the camera over to a friend who introduces himself as MannCK Bartlett. Bartlett has brought him a lunch of a peanut butter chocolate shake and a Cobb salad. Bilal is noticeably brighter in mien when he has visitors in the gallery space. Bilal pauses the video to have lunch.

When the video resumes, bilal again has a more tense expression on his face. He is again framed against the gallery windows looking out onto the street. Due to the shortage of paint balls he says he had switched to rubber rounds. However, he had found a company in Illinois who had stepped in and would provide paintballs for the duration of the project. He thanks PMI for their donation of paintballs and CO2 for remaining 6(in fact it would be seven)days of the project. He thanks the community for this and he says he thinks the community thanks them(PMI) for this. With that he says good bye.



The second video for day twenty five begins with Bilal talking on a mobile phone. he says that he had been talking to the paint ball store and that they had no more yellow paint balls. He said they were down to a single case, but more would be coming the next day. Saying he would update us later, the brief segment ends.

When the video resumes he said PMI "did not come through". It said now he had to call another supplier now for the next days supply. He said tht PMI had called back and said "they could not support the project". He said they said it was not broader politics but internal policies due to a recent merger. Bilal has walked out of the yellow room, into the front area of the gallery and lifts his goggles, and shakes his head. The furrows of his brow and the squint of his eyes suggest great concern. He says he is both disappointed and appreciative of PMI's position. He groans as he rises from a sitting position. The sound of voices and the crack of paintballs being fired can be heard as he dials the other supplier. he is silent for a moment then says he is calling discount paint ball. However, it seems to take a long time to connect, and he apparently adjusts his phone volume. Finally, he announces himself into the phone. The conversation seems to have long pauses where Bilal seems to be on hold. Bilal says to the camera, as he waits, that he doesn't want to use the rubber balls because they are more painful and"bounce back". "yes! ok, ok, yeah, ok oh great!" Bilal asks if they will be able to ship them, as otherwise he will need volunteers to collect them. Bilal offers this synopsis "They located 20 cases of yellow 'paint'[balls] and mark talked to PMI who weren't going to donate it but would negotiate a better price."

Bilal zooms into his face as he says he hopes this will be sufficient paint to finish the project, and signs off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lklAAwy1dUQ&feature=related

questions- is this an art-game or game art?
How does this piece of performance art negotiate the line between spectacle and mundane performativity?----------->Webcam society/Rock band community- panopticon/

Compare- Doom, Domestic tension, Virtual Jihadi, Cremaster and "Shoot"

Youtube video- The Paintball Project Day 24

This blog post was made in two parts on Memorial day- the day the United states honours its veterans. Bilal said he felt good and the steady volume of fire required loading the gun every twenty minutes. He recalled how the previous day had been very difficult emotionally. He says he was feeling much better than yesterday and had restored his confidence in his ability to finish his project. He mentions that he had chosen to not show disturbing footage from yesterday. He looks down as he says this. He was concerned that he would upset those that cared about him.

He searches for his words then says that he felt he could share that footage now. Bilal stammers a little as he warns the video shot after  his friends left the previous day was very disturbing. He says the rate of fire in the background was much lighter than in the footage he was about to show from the previous day.

"Hi everybody, (2:15) it's Monday, memorial day....it is the heaviest day we have had... all the available slots have been filled." Said Bilal. I counted 9 rounds fired in the first thirty seconds of this segment. "I honestly thought it would be much quieter because it was memorial day." he says that it is not only the US, with Denmark, Ireland, the UK, France and Canada as contributing  people operating the paint ball gun. He is perplexed that such a global presence would appear on a Monday, even if it was a holiday for the US.

He says it was the first time he had seen this. Saying he will provide an update later, he turns his camera toward the gun which is traversing rapidly from side to side. He then turns the camera back at the opposite wall. Bilal again emphasises the damage done and high volume of constant fire. He says he expects the server to crash, then signs off.

When he returns, he says it is memorial day.   Bilal's brow is knit beneath the protective goggles and his movement is abrupt and jerky. he stammers a little, as he says they are "still under heavy bombardment".  He notes that his personal computer has crashed(too much chat traffic, but the gun is still firing. He says that he has to reload the gun's hopper every ten minutes and he swings the camera towards the gun, whose hopper is almost empty. He says "gotta go andf fill it as the camera swings abruptly and the video cuts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWUfROO6-34



The second video of day twenty four begins by repeating the last 20 second of the previous video.  The camera now points bat the ceiling as Bilal moves, then he places it where it can view him loading the gun. As he places handfuls of paint bails in the hopper, the gun jerks violently from side to side. He returns to address the camera, with the paintball gun visible over his shoulder. He notes that the server is full, with 60 or seventy other trying to log on. The mnajority were from the US but he notes many were from Demark, UK, France and Thailand. The video cuts away.

When it resumes, Bilal appears without his goggles and says it is 5o'clock. The shoot continues, with refills every fifteen minutes and people from around the world. Bilal describes this as a hard day. The video abruptly cuts to the day 23 footage that Bilal had desribed earlier.

In this clip, we can hear bilal suck in his breath and sobs."People don't mind giving me so much hope- everybody' is in Tears" says Bilal. "Can you imagine an entire nation living like this?" And his voice cracks as he begins to weep. He looks away from the camera and flinches with the crack of a paintbal round. He is silent for a few mintues then the video retrurs to the openiing sequence from day 24.

Bilal says" I hope this will give you an idea of how hard it is to be in this place. It's no longer a physical game but a mnetal one because he no longer fears the gun, which he describes as "scary". It is mental because the act of shooting at him has become mechanical. The taunts of some people online in the projects chat room. He describes his unease with his ability to continue and the frustration of the other perticipants with the projects continuation.

Bilal says"My intent is to raise awareness of my family in Iraq... That is my first intent and I'm going to continue doing until next Monday. Thank you for your support, you have been great. I look forward to talk to you all at some point. Bye for now". His demeanor seems more determined or perhaps rigid as this last brief clip plays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maaZ7fiyQhA

Youtube Video- The Paint Ball Project Day 23

Bilal addresses the camera with the street behind him, visible through the gallery window. He says he has a new energy thanks to the people watching the blogs posted on Youtube, those participating through the online chat room , and visitors that spent time with him in front of the gun bringing "care, love and food". But he says his emotions are going up and down and he has trouble composing himself. He warns that the footage he was about to share might be a bit disturbing but "reflected reality". The video cuts away to previous footage.

"Hi everybody it is day 23 and I have two of my best friends here." Bilal is again in the yellow room, the wooden panels protecting the wall from paintball rounds visible behind him. He pans the camera to BenCK and SylviaCK who are both wearing full head paint ball helmets. Bilal mentions they have just returned from vacation and that both took part in the project, Ben writing [computer] codeCK and Sylvia writing the Html. Syvlia says it is very intense being in the space with the gun, and she and Ben giggle nervously then she jumps as the crack of a paintball round resounds through the room. A second before she had responded with a "yes" to Bilal's question of whether she felt "she was in a war zone". She says the the sound is very intense, causing her heart rate to elevate and "creating a constant state of anxiety". Bilal goes on to say that is probably what is causing he symptoms of heavy breathing and chest pains that he described in his previous blog posts. He says he will update later and that segment of the blog post ends.

When the video resumes he is walking towards the front doors of the gallery. He says" They are here, let's say hi to them and he pans his camera to a trio of smiling people, visible through the window, approaching the doors. He greets them warmly and they introduce themselves as Lori Talley CK, Lori HemslayCK and Nick Muller. Bilal explains they are bringing him lunch and describes his appreciation for how the community are taking care of him since he is "totally isolated".

This made me think of how shamanic characters would have been supported by the people around them in the earliest human communities. These feats of endurance as a way of acquiring wisdom for a community required supporting the artist/religious figure/diviner as a conduit.

They enter the gallery, going up the stairs. The segment ends as they stop for lunch.

The video repeats the interview with Ben and Sylvia.

At the conclusion of the video, Bilal says he has decided not to include the disturbing video, because it had upset him too much. He says he is feeling good and it is about two o'clock in the morning. things have been stable- the gun never stopped. I am up for it so pleased don' t be worried, I'm going to be fine. Bye!" The video ends as the camera pans in a blur then cuts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DciV2znsGpo

Youtube video- The Paint Ball Project day 22

The video begins with Bilal saying we are probably wondering what the noise in the background. We can hear a noisy crowd, and Bilal's face fills the camera frame but the camera is facing out of the immediate area into the greater gallery space. Waiters and wedding guests appear and disappear as they pass by the portal. Bilal explains the wedding is causing him to have tremendous swings of emotion. He is perplexed by by his motion and says "the reality is blurred, now". The gun was turned off for the wedding, at the request of its organisers. Bilal recalls the same emotional experience when the gun was turned off during day ten. Tears are visibly running down his cheeks and he seems to be staring off into space as he speaks.

He says that this time as he can let down his guard , he doesn't know if he could continue. He describes his emotions as uncontainable, crying then laughing and smiling. He says" I know it is only eight days to go, but I am so worried about my mind... I hope, I hope, I hope I am going to finish the next eight days. He feels that his turmoil is exacerbated by having "the wedding on one side and destruction on the other". He pans the camera to the wedding then quickly to the paint covered area then back onto himself, again. He says he does not resent the wedding as it is "a celebration of something beautiful.

However Bilal says this painful emotion results from his particular situation. Recalling the support he received from some one in the chatroom during his previous experience he hopes he will find a "new point of strength". The video breaks at his point.

When the video resumes, Bilal is back in goggles and armoured vest and in the yellow room, with the latest room lamp in the background over his shoulder. He says he friend Alicia had just called him and was waiting in the alley with dinner for him. He had apparently turned the gun on again, and as he left the yellow room, he bent low to avoid paintball fire, then stood up and replaced his goggles with spectacles, again commenting on the strange juxtaposition of the paint ball gun with the wedding and it's audible sound of people in social hubbub. As Bilal makes his way to the side entrance of the gallery, music can be heard in the background and we can make out the last melisma of the chorus of The BeeGees' Stayin' Alive. He says "Hey!" and waves to his friend.

He explains he can't step out of the gallery and asks her to come in. She goes to find parking and he says they will return. He comments the air smells so good it is torture. The video cannot convey the smell and texture of living in a filthy dangerous space. Then his friends arrive from out of the darkness.

"Hi Who are you?" asks Bilal. Michael introduces himself then Bilal points the camera at Alicia and introduces her, and Michael as her boyfriend. She says "You got a really bright light on that thing" referring to the camera light that makes them both flinch. Alicia says she got him extra spicy curry and chicken and he pans down to the bag she is carrying. He jokes that alot of girls bring him food but this time Alicia has brought her boy friend. They enter the gallery and the conversation is buried by the wedding sounds, then the video cuts.

Bilal is back in the yellow room when the video resumes. His typical introduction of "Hey, Everybody it's Day 22" has been moved to this last section. His voice is more up beat than in the beginning and he seems more composed in his armour and goggles. He says that with the gun active and the wedding over his emotional "swing" has ended. "All the emotion disappears. I don't know how to explain it" Bilal says. He shifts his position and sits on his bed and there is the familiar crack of the paintball gun. "I hope this concludes the day. Eight more days." He stares intently into the camera. Music is audible and it seems to be pop from perhaps Iraq. Then video ends with Bilal still staring into the camera.


This self imposition reminds me of the way we choose to confine ourselves in particular jobs, roles and locales in order to achieve something better. How Weberian, how modern? Is this how Empire recolonises itself?
Does this will to endure enable biopower that sustains Empire?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCBji8pQ-nM

Youtube video- The Paint Ball Project Day 21

Day twenty one begins with Bilal in protective goggles, his black and white Keffiyeh around his neck. As with most of his videos, his face is in closeup, with the the usual paint spatter yellow of the gallery wall behind him.

Bilal's video blog for that day begins without his usual greeting. His appears to have started recording in the middle of his address. He stumbles for words which emerge as a jumble "ahh...post-traumatic syndrome...ahhh starts showing that.."

He then swears with a sudden an unusual vehemence, as if he were spitting. he pauses again, then there is a brief jump as he cuts and sways back and forth from the camera, then starts to speak again with the familiar "Hi Everybody... it is almost 11:30 in the evening on Day 21. Things are going good and bad. The good is I see the end of it- only 9 days to go. But the bad things is I am beginning to see a lot of health problems." he reaches behind his neck to scratch as he lists skins rashes, difficulty breathing, which he describes as "heavy", and symptoms of post-traumatic syndrome.

He explains the shooting has intensified. In the background, the sounds of paint balls being fired constantly punctuates his monologue. He notes in the chat room people were doubting whether the performance was real.

Bilal quoes someone at IP address 195 as doubting whether this performance is real. Bilal says"It doesn't really matter if the performance is real or not....I wanted to illustrate the point that we are disconnected from reality sometimes." He differentiates being in "a comfort zone and a conflict zone". He expresses the view that the difficult decision whether or not to shoot must be left up to others than himself. His goal was to share the predicament of his family in Iraq. Perhaps, he notes the fact he has created the environment and set some of the parameters means he has a much better situation than his family in Iraq."I can step out of it any minute I want, they cannot step out at all" Bilal says.

Again he refers to the anxiety, the filth and the health problems. His attempts at improving the air with a fan, and cleaning the room have little effect on his immediate environment. He carefully moves across the room to avoid paintball fire, and shows the protective wood he had placed the previous day were completely painted with yellow, as was the tree. The floor has a pool of yellow paint with empty paint ball shells suggesting festering on the floor and lower parts of the walls where these would occasionally stick.

Bilal turns the camera back to look at the gun. It tracks, and fires and he sees it needs to be reloaded. He notes that he has to reload it almost every twenty minutes. This suggests a rate of fire of approximately one shot every six seconds. The camera tracks violently around the space as we hear bilal pouring paintballs into the hopper. The camera finally comes to rest on the hopper of the gun. He notes that 4000 paint ball had been fired that day.

He then holds the camera low to the ground, showing more of the filthy, paint covered conditions of the space, as he makes his way to his computer station. From there, he turns his camera back towards the gun. He says "this is for IP address 195. I ran out of ammo... it is a healing process " that would help himself, Bilal, deal with things he had not previously dealt with. He expressed hope but "wasn't sure if the performance would end the way he wanted to". I hope to be able to finish up, and in nine days to be out of here na this place will be in the history(sic)... My goal is to survive." saying he will do what he can to preserve his physical and mental health, Bilal signs off.



Suggestively, the hopper has the lable "halo" vsible on the side. Halo is also the name of the popular FPS series produced by Bungie Systems for Microsoft. This potential crossover between players of paintball and FPS digital games seems to touch on the idea of Dyer-witherford and de peyuter(CK) as a deployement of FPS as a kind of topoi that is encoded in the material culture of both types of games. The mock battlefield of both serves as a internal colonialisation similar to the battle fields of old imperialism, but now recolonising a globalised territory. How does his inside and outside negotiate with the inside and outside of Empire?

Youtube Video- The Paint Ball Project Day 20

"Day 20 Not feeling very good" says Bilal. He goes onto describe a pain in his chest which has grown bigger and feels "heavy". Expressing that it could be any number of things, he mentions remaining just in that space and never leaving, a lack of fresh air as possible causes for a difficulty breathing. He goes on to describe the morning as having a steady rate of fire with Switzerland contributing heavily, "bombing everything" he says.

He describes how the sheet of cardboard he had stuck on the wall the previous day to protect it required replacement. When he turns the camera onto it we see it is in tatters, with holes penetrating through it and into the wall beneath. he explains he will use new material to protect the wall.

As he proceeds he describes how he has changed the space by moving the computer into the middle of the space, eliminating the need for shield while working with it. The absence of shields now necessitates him walking low to avoid being hit.

A this point he smiles as Cathleen McGraff(CK) and Meghan Stirling(CK) enter the gallery, bringing him food. They brought him smoothies, tapioca and sushi. He says "Great, let's have lunch" having said he would post pone repairs as the two visitors entered the space. His expression, often rather drawn becomes extremely happy, with a broad grin. He says he will "update us later after lunch" and the segment ends.

When Bilal continues the days video blog his expression is again tense. He attaches some light plywood sheets to the wall. He decides to use a rolling plexiglass sheet to protect himself while doing the repairs. The damage is visibly worse than in previous days. He expresses sorrow that the tree has been damaged. He cuts the video briefly as he screws the panel to the wall.

He notes that at this point people seem to be either respecting the sheet and the repair process, or are holding their fire waiting for an opportunity to shoot him. When the final panel is in place an the shield is moved, firing commences immediately. Bilal records the growing number of splatters where the paint balls hit the newly installed cladding. He seems to chuckle as he says goodbye.

Youtube Video- The Paintball Project Day 19

The video begins with a close up on Bilal's face, illuminated by a camera light in a seemingly dark space. He said he "was afraid to go to sleep because he started getting up without realising the gun was above his head". As a result he decided to tie himself to the bed with some rope so that he can not get up and unconsciously get in the gun's line of fire.

He rubs his eyes as he descends into the basement, to retrieve some rope. As he searches the basement the camera points at his chest and shoulder and we can see the black paintball armour vest that he always wears. He holds up lengths of blue and yellow nylon straps. He ascends the stairs, with the camera gyrating as he reenters the room with the paintball gun


He says "This is what i miss the most, just the simple act of going to bed. It becomes very hard when someone is always aiming at you".Bilal then tries to go to bed by tying himself to his bed. The room Bilal is still illuminated, unlike the rest of the gallery. The camera again gyrates as he

A paintball shot cracks and Bilal jumps witha gasp. He explains he has tied the first strap, and is now tying the second one. The camera comes to rest on the floor, showing a pool of paint collecting across the floor, underneath the bed. Bilal picks up the camera and says "this is the rope- it is not perfect" but goes on to say it will keep me from arising unawares of the gun. He lies back, adjusts his armour and goggles then says good night. The video ends.


I find it difficult the describe it as the performance space, as it is a simulation of his living room, a gallery space, and this is merely part of where the performance takes place, as it effectively includes(or could be considered to) also in homes offices and whereever there is an internet connection that has connected to his server. His technician, for example, describes shooting at him via a mobile phone(and feeling badly about it immediately afterwards) while chatting about the project in a bar(Bilal & Lyderson p.TK)

Youtube video- The Paint Ball project Day 18

Day 18
The first a two part blog post begins with Bilal explaining his post was taking place at the end of the day, near midnight. He describes the day as quiet. A paintball shot rings out at this point. He continues, saying the day had "no particular dramas". Bilal mentions that he has brought a new tree to decorate the room. The video then cuts to earlier footage.

We see Bilal walking through the gallery space, carrying the video camera in his hand and recording himself. He says he hopes people will "respect the tree" rather than shooting it. He then turns the camera onto the tree, a small one and picks it up. The footage then cuts to inside the actually performance space. He considers how he will get past the  paintball gun. The footage is quite jerky . He decides to forego the shield in favour of dragging the tree.

He comments on how nice the tree smells. He then waits to see if anyone will shoot the tree. The  paintball gun is almost spasmodically moving. Bilal says this is due to multiple users trying to control the gun simultaneously.He remarks it would be sad if someone deliberately tried to shoot the tree. the video then returns to the day's introductory scene.

He said it didn't take long for someone to shoot the tree. It was "about 11 or so in the mornig" and the video cuts off abruptly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmrhucSu9Zk


The second part resumes a second both the break. I suspect this is due to the ten minute limit Youtube places on video. Bilal he says he feels a little bit sorry, and it  As the tree animates the room. Bilal expresses bewilderment that anyone would want to shoot the tree, although he shows the extensive damge to the wall due to the increased volume of fire aimed at the tree. The dripping paint is thicker near the tree, and many gouges are visible in the drywall.

Bilal goes on to talk about an interview he had done earlier with someone active in the performance's chat room. He suggests we might know them on that basis. This porousness of the performance is such that at this point we can begin to question where the performance begin s an ends- is the video part of the performance, or documentation? Is there a spacial component that differentiates the two? how does this work when both performance and documentation are experienced primarily through the internet, with most interaction by chat room?

"Hey every it's day 18. I'am here with a visitor" Says Bilal. He has her introduce herself. "Hi I'm Laura(Lara CK) Some of you may know me as 149." She goes onto explain she came to know Wafaa through the chatroom of the performance and since she lives in Chicago she brought muffins to him when she visited the performance space(And again, I ask myself, what is the performance space here?) She also brought him socks at his request. She unpacks  the bag of gifts and . Bilal thanks Laura and says how much the support of the community makes the performance more bearable for him. He then signs off from the interview.

He again cuts back to the opening setting. He agains thanks Laura and says that this is a "heart warming example of a community that is being built". He goes on to say this complements the ongoing discussion that he repeatedly says is the goal of his performance. As he often does he returns with a post script. He shows again the extension damage to the wall. He says he will cover the wall to protect so the shots do not "burn a hole" through it. He then signs off



 Bilal notes how good the muffins smell(a vary embodied sense) . Is the visual some how de-spatialised?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh4U6pujjC4

Youtube video The paintBall project day 17

Day 17

Bilal begins this video by saying it is quiet- "except for the gun going off, every few seconds". He goes on to say he is having difficulty reaching people and that his support system may be falling, so he is trying to ask people he hasn't made requests to before. he says it makes him sad but he understands that his project has pulled his friends away from work and life. He makes a request to anybody watching who has time to visit to come to the gallery. He mentions he has a few friends who are supposed to be coming by that day, but his knit brow suggests that he is very doubtful.

It is slower when the gallery is closed he says and the video breaks

It is so good to be clean" Bilal says having taken a shower. He shows his clothes he had been wearing as being fairly dirty having not changed them for several days. He said Jason had come by with site statistics. They had received 6 million hits and transmitted 250 Gb of data, not counting the data from their earlier server. This volume of traffic pleased Bilal as it meant more and more people were "engaging in the conversation". He mentions he is chatting less as he is afraid that he is affecting the discourse in the chat room. He said he didn't want to be an authority figure but rather to "keep that narrative open" as people communicated with each other.

He says he does not seek a narrative, and wants a dynamic outcome that is not determined by himself or anyone else. he is aware that he has set parameters, but doesn't want to guide the outcome.

As the blog winds down for the day he says his energy is good, and that he is used to the sound of the gun. His demeanour is markedly more upbeat from the previous segment. having been living in the same clothing for days it is easy to conjecture that cleaning oneself and changing into fresh clothes might feel euphoric. he does mention that reloading the gun "got to him" as it involved him having to get up frequently in the night in order to load more paint balls into the hopper, sometimes every ten minutes.

he says that five hours of sleep. He assures people that his health is sound and he will complete the project. He says "The project is doing what it is supposed to be doing, engaging people in conversation" and asks that "people continue giving him emotional support". He then says good bye but returns with a brief video post-script.

he explains that some friends had emailed him asking why he is placing himself in physical and mental jeopardy. He says, simply"desperate time call for desperate measures".



How is the video different from the chat room? How does the performance shift from in mechanic to out of mechanic. Are the video blogs "cut scenes"?


is this game art or art game? The performance has finished but the documenting is still there; where is the temporal border of the performance? The spatial border is defined by Bilal as the gallery space, but we can follow him out of range of the gun as he walks through the gallery, or even beneath the gun mount- in the age of Empire, is this the limit of spatiality?
His is not a utopic space, because he bends the territory- like those who avoided battles in former Yugoslavia holidaying kilometers from battle fields.

Bilal's emphasis on a non-narrative or emerging narrative seem to relate to other interactive perfromance pices but also other emergent behaviors and this is a point where it touchs on Empire as an endlessly rupturing economic system. does duchamp also ask this?




  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-t_otw-ang

Youtube Video- The paintball project day 16

The video begins in what Bilal calls a "quiet time- like the evening". He stumbles over his words as he mentions that they have over 250 people on the site at that moment but he suspects the server has crashed. He suggests this may have been a deliberate attempt at creating a denial-of-service attack by overwhelming the server or just due to an increasing awareness drawing traffic to the site.

He mentions two health concerns- a "heaviness" in the chest  that he thought might be due to either paint fumes or stress. The other problem is a feeling of physical weakness that he describes as growing day by day. As he says he "felt better yesterday" his monologue is interrupted by a spasm of coughing. He says it is probably due to a lack of sleep and stress.

he continues on to say that he is "beginning to hate yellow" as he looks back towards the walls covered with yellow paint spatters from the thousands of paint balls. He says he now hates the sound of the paintballs. He says he knows it is day sixteen and he is counting down towards the completion of the performance but expresses "Hope that he can continue" and so complete the work.

Bilal then uses the camera to present the damage to the room and its contents. The irregular horizontal band of yellow paint is clearly visible, and the floor seems strewn with spent paint balls. As Bilal gets down on his knees to show the audience under the bed he mentions that even though the server is down, sometimes it will randomly function, allowing a paintball to be fired. the result of the number paintballs has created a large pool of paint that trickles down the wall and across the floor.

The walls show significant damage from repeated paintball hits and the bed is splattered by paint balls rupturing on the walls and other targets. Bilal says again he doesn't mind the quiet but shows the gun is still moving slightly. He then says he will go down in the basement so he will avoid both colour and the paintball gun. He says he will go a try and get some rest. He notes he doesn't need the safety goggles as he leaves the performance piece, suggesting he now considered it normal to wear them.

We follow him as he descends into the gallery basement and finds a place to lie down, which he does with a groan, and signs off. He returns saying he can hear the gun. He says he hates the unpredictable nature of the gun"not knowing when it is going to go off". As he is saying this, we hear the distant crack of the paintball gun. Bilal rubs his face with his hand and turns off the camera, ending the day with out a sign-off




What does "performance" mean when you occupy a space as a residence?

the PaintBall project day 15

Bilal's video begins at about six o'clock in the evening, with him expressing a certain enjoyment in the silence due to another server crash. As he mentioned in previous posts, large volumes of visitors to the site overloaded it. In this case, the increased traffic was due to a large number of people finding the project via DIGG. He describes his mood as upbeat, despite the current obstacles he discusses.

He said that the previous day, the volume of fire expended almost twenty thousand paint balls in less than 24hrs. This qoute is interesting as he says elsewhere that about 60 000 paint balls were expended in total over the thirty one days of the performance. This  caused two obstacles which Bilal describes as essentially a physical pool of paint. The second obstacle he describes as financial- he had maxed out his credit card and had to borrow money from friends to continue buying paint balls and gas cylinders. A quick check of prices suggest that one day cost between 1700 and 2500 USD.

He said there were conflicting reports as to why the server was down. On one hand, he said the increased strain of increased traffic was attributed to the systems failure. on the other hand, he heard that members of the DIGG community were actively trying to crash the server to prevent people shooting at Bilal. He describes this second hypothesis as "heart warming". He thanks those watching as it "fills him with hope".

He ends by saying he is now counting down to the end of the project and looks forward to completing it, although he is concerned about the psychological and financial costs of pursuing it. He observes the frequency of shots, up to  or 5 a second" gives him no rest. Despite this he said he "looks forward to reporting more good news".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ6XbZZIyVk