You guys might have seen this link posted on kotaku yesterday, of an artist's sculpture that spills blood every time someone dies playing Counterstrike on its server. If not, here it is:


http://rileyharmon.com/11_07/2008/electronic-sculpture/

I think this sculpture is brilliant. Even though physical manifestations of data are the art world's current fixation, I like that this project is not only directly video game related, but incorporates a tangible, somatic, bloody element.

While some people might interpret this piece as a statement against violence in video games or just art fag bullshit, I enjoy it on a purely conceptual level:

What happens to bodies when they die in virtual worlds?

I realize how absurd and useless that sounds, but you hardly ever see the aftermath. I've always wanted to play a shooter game that showed a stack of bodies of those you killed growing and growing. A visual of your accomplishments rendered via electronic corpses. I wonder how any of us would react to that---would we kill more and more, seeing it as a status symbol, or would it make us mildly uncomfortable on some primal level?

What's also interesting about the sculpture is that this blood would have to be cleaned up every few hours, undoubtedly by a grumbling custodial worker. It reminds me of No More Heroes and how the boss assassin's bodies are disposed. Their bodies don't just dissipate into exploding blood (or black clouds for non US versions), the corpses require disposal by a team of undertakers. Why Suda 51 did it this way, I'd love to discuss with him.

So, smart people of Destructoid, what say you?