Velvet-Strike

Protest of war can take on many different forms, from mass demonstrations to writing public denouncements to the less than legal act of vandalizing buildings with anti-war themed graffiti. In the case of the works presented in Velvet-Strike, most of its works act in the latter form. But instead of being based in reality, the works of graffiti are made for the purpose of being used in the virtual reality of the game "Counter-Strike". The game is a multiplayer shooting game based on the premise of the War on Terrorism, where player can take the side of either the terrorists or the counter-terrorist commandos. However, the greater social and political dynamics are often put aside in order to engage players of the more exhilarating aspect of being in a fight. The graffiti spay paint modifications offer a point for players to remind others of the greater effects of the War on Terrorism. As the description in the About page succinctly puts it: "Velvet-Strike is a collection of spray paints to use as graffiti on the walls, ceiling, and floor of the popular network shooter terrorism game 'Counter-Strike'." By downloading the spray-pattern files, players can easily add such anti-war messages to any point in the game's settings for any other players to come across. It is in these small modifications that more conceptual art can find its way in unexpected settings like a shooting game.

What compelled me to take a closer look at this particular new media site was partially spurred by my own interest in the military and partially by video game dynamics. Upon discovering the more subversive aspects of the intentions behind what drove the creation of Velvet-Strike, I found the idea of placing an anti-war theme into a war-based setting to be an amusing way to pass on ideas to others not intentionally looking for such things in a video game. Because of this, I am curious as to whether there is the possibility creating such spray patterns for other MMORPG games such as Halo or Warcraft to promote the anti-war messages apparent in Velvet-Strike's collection.