Artist Pulls Controversial 9/11 Game Exhibit

After a negative reaction, generally from U.S. citizens, French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley on Friday decided to turn off his Space Invaders-inspired interactive art piece Invaders!, which featured an extra-terrestrial attack on the Twin Towers.

Stanley, who was born and raised in Silicon Valley before moving to France, said in his personal blog, "After three days of a steady downward spiral in public discussion of the piece, I have just given my agreement to the organizers of the Leipzig Games Convention to simply turn off the installation Invaders!"

After finding its way onto the Internet via reports out of the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany, message board posters, as well as posters on Douglas’ blog, have called his work insensitive and accused him of cheap attention-grabbing tactics.

"While I take full responsibility for the uncomfortable ambiguity of certain aspects of this work, it was never created to merely provoke controversy for controversy’s sake, and unfortunately, this is what the piece has now become," he said.

The interactive exhibit features the pixelated World Trade Center towers, with aliens descending upon the buildings, which fall no matter how gamers play. Occupants are also shown jumping from the buildings.

Stanley added, "The American response to this work has been, frankly, immature, and lacking the sophistication and consideration that other parts of the world have so far shown the work.

"Contrary to previous reports, I am an American, and it saddens me that we as a people remain so profoundly unable to process this event outside of some obscure, but tacitly understood, criteria of purely anesthetized artistic representation."

He said that event organizers at Leipziger-Messe did not force him out, and instead have offered him support.

In a Twitter entry, he said, "I’ve just given permission to turn off the piece. This will undoubtedly fuel a whole new cycle."

Space Invaders developer Taito also said Friday that it is exploring the possibility of suing for copyright infringement.

Although the exhibit has caused controversy this week from Leipzig GC, it originally debuted in 2001 shortly after the World Trade Center tragedy.