Counter-Strike & Wetworks

Abstract

This research creation project is comprised of a film and essay that investigates what happens to objects when they circulate through real worlds, fictional worlds, personal memory, and public archives. By following the journey of the Kalashnikov assault rifle—an object made notorious through its depiction in news media, movies and video games—as it transits these different phases, we will see how the rifle’s “value” is modified by the different contexts it finds itself in. To better understand these changes in value-state and context, a critical analysis of the first person shooter Counter-Strike will be conducted. What effects do Counter-Strike’s form, logic and relationship to the world as a fictional model of it have on our understanding of the complex, multilayered realities we live in? Can these gamelike models be reclaimed/repurposed via “modding” to navigate the increasingly blurred threshold of real life and fictional worlds, and to put into dialog objects from such seemingly disparate domains such as the military, entertainment, economics and Western art history?