Art exhibit angers 9/11 families

Aug 22, 2008

A controversial art exhibit on show at this week's Leipzig Games Convention in Germany depicts the World Trade Center towers under attack from Space Invaders characters.

"It's very, very distasteful," said Zachary Fletcher, an FDNY firefighter who lost his brother in the 9/11 attacks. "Aliens are not going to attack the World Trade Center. That makes no sense at all," he told the New York Daily News this week. Another relative of a 9/11 victim labeled the exhibit a sleazy attempt to profit from the tragedy.

The installation, Invaders!, which was on display at Europe's largest annual video games trade show, is a two-player, motion-controlled spin on arcade classic Space Invaders, and sees players defending the iconic towers from a never-ending assault of aliens. Next to the screen, a second display shows clips from American movies like Taxi Driver, Die Hard, and Air Force One blended with shots of a flight suit-clad George W. Bush, and John Wayne toting a gun. The official Games Convention web site describes it as "an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy."

Art exhibit at Leipzig (Source: AP)

Created by French-American artist and researcher Douglas Edric Stanley shortly after the attacks in 2001, Invaders! was making its Leipzig appearance in celebration of the original game's 30th anniversary. Stanley called the reaction "overblown," saying in a Twitter posting: "I'll let this thing play out, and reply when everyone's calmed down."

Away from New York, reactions to the installation have been more measured. Noted video games blogger Michael McWhertor, who played the game in Leipzig this week, described it in a Kotaku posting as "unsettling, with its blending of archaic gameplay and modern day catastrophe, but it's also an impressive accomplishment in that it delivers complex messages via simple means."

Taito, the Japanese company behind the original Space Invaders arcade game, presumably finds the exhibit less impressive, and is reportedly considering taking legal action against Stanley.

Art exhibit angers 9/11 families

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