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Viral Counter - Attack

"Viral Counter-Attack" is a multi-user immersive computer environment which follows certain conventions of the computer war-game precedent. Here multi-users command custom made real-time computer viruses against one another in an image environment created from the pictorial work series of Joseph Nechvatal called OvOidism. In OvOidism, terrain-like visual fields are created through the mixing of virally infected testicles, ovaries, breasts, bums, eggs, fruit and eyes.

The individual virus attacks, which feed off these visual fields, are color coded to identify them with each players body. By gesturing with their bodies, players can direct the course of real-time virus-verses-virus attacks and engage in complex strategic moves in war-game like fashion. Factors such as strategic groupings, co-operation between players, allocation of eat speed, and the managing of adequate host nourishment are crucial factors at play within "Viral Counter-Attack". The audio component is generated by the viral and gestured action in real time.

Joseph Nechvatal (Concept and Visual Art): http://www.nechvatal.net
Music2Eye (Programming, Design, Audio): http://www.music2eye.com
collection:2004 | date added:2004-09-29 | enter project

joseph nechvatal : about

Joseph Nechvatal has worked with ubiquitous electronic visual information and computer-robotics since 1986. His computer-robotic assisted paintings and computer animations are shown regularly in galleries and museums throughout the world. From 1991-3 he worked as artist-in-resident at the Louis Pasteur Atelier and the Saline Royale / Ledoux Foundation's computer lab in Arbois, France on 'The Computer Virus Project': an experiment with computer viruses as a creative stratagem. Dr. Nechvatal has exhibited his work widely in Europe and the United States, both in private and public venues. He is collected by the Los Angeles County Museum, the Moderna Musset in Stockholm, Sweden and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Dr. Nechvatal's work was included in Documenta 8.

Dr. Nechvatal earned his Ph.D. in the philosophy of art and new technology as a Ph.D. doctoral fellow researcher with The Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA) (see: http://www.eyewithwings.net/nechvatal/ideals.htm). Dr. Nechvatal presently teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.