Comment by the Curator Andreas Lange (Computerspiele Museum) on the debate about the work “Invaders!”

It is with express regret that we have accepted artist Douglas E. Stanley’s decision to turn off his interactive installation “Invaders!” which formed part of our exhibition, "Space Invaders.From Outer Space" at GC Art. As we respect and can understand his decision, we complied with it on 22/08/2008.

We were conscious that, with the attack on the World Trade Center, “Invaders!” was revisiting an event that had occurred not too distantly in the past and that therefore represented a controversial subject. The work was not an attempt to provoke controversy for controversy's sake, but an invitation to reflect, made in a distinctive manner. Given that, for Stanley, “Invaders!” is ultimately about an appeal for peaceful coexistence, which extends beyond the subject of 9/11, we saw no reason not to show his work, especially as it has repeatedly been exhibited in a number of different versions since 2001.

An important reason behind the intensity of the debate, however, which has surprised us all,may have been Stanley’s use of one of the best-known icons for video games which, now as before, repeatedly come in for criticism around the globe for glorifying violence and war. It says everything about the quality of “Invaders!” that the work succeeded in picking up on this cliché, integrating it into a complex whole and thus giving it a new significance. At the same time, video games are not the only media that Stanley was using in “Invaders!”. A collage of US-American action films also forms a firm part of the installation.

Yet not only did Stanley borrow the images and plot from a certain video game, he also made the installation something that visitors could play with. This is significant in a media society which – not least as a result of the wide distribution of video games – gives everyone the opportunity to participate. In this way, visitors to art exhibitions too are invited by the work to reflect on themselves and their experiences, to give it a meaning.

For us, “Invaders!” represents an appreciation of art, which also naturally uses and makes the subject of discussion the media pictures, clichés and patterns of behaviour that surround us and determine how we live together in society, thus encouraging us to reflect on them.Like the computer games medium itself, in this “Invaders!” draws on a simple understanding that goes beyond the mere viewing of the event on the screen, to intelligent assessment. The moment of interaction, participation in the work, is the central moment of the media revolution that we are experiencing now. For several decades now, computer games have been making this tangible. At its core, “Invaders!” also explores precisely this moment of interaction. It is in the nature of good art that it always points us towards discourse, a little earlier and more explicitly than is acceptable to everyone, that has to do with us as a society.