MOUSE MANDALA

Joseph DeLappe (USA)

WEST WARD WORKS - PART OF THE GROUP EXHIBITION MEDIA ARCHAEOLOGY: EXCAVATIONS
Guthrie Street
DD1 5BR

Used, broken or otherwise discarded computer mice, woven into a growing spiral. DeLappe began building this piece in 1999. The mice were first collected at University computer labs, then buying hundreds at a time, in bulk, through electronics surplus stores in Silicon Valley. The work is inspired by thoughts of contemporary cubicle work cultures while also paying a wry tribute to the weavers and craftspersons whose lives were upended by the industrial revolution.

About the Artist:

Joseph Delappe is the Professor of Games and Tactical Media at Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland where he relocated early in 2017 after 23 years directing the Digital Media program at the University of Nevada, Reno. A native San Franciscan, he has been working with electronic and new media since 1983, his work in online gaming performance, sculpture and electromechanical installation have been shown throughout the United States and abroad ‐ including exhibitions and performances in Australia, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Mexico, Italy, Peru, Sweden and Canada. In 2006 he began the project dead‐in‐Iraq, to type consecutively, all names of America’s military casualties from the war in Iraq into America’s Army first-person shooter online recruiting game. In 2013, he rode a specially equipped bicycle to draw a 460-mile long chalk line around the Nellis Air Force Range to surround an area that would be large enough to create a solar farm that could power the entire United States. More recently he developed the concept behind “Killbox”, an interactive computer game about drone warfare created with the Biome Collective in Scotland. Killbox was recently nominated for a BAFTA Scotland (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) as “Best Computer Game”.