Event Poster for Joseph DeLappe's mixed-reality performance artwork "Fifty Shades of Black Ops" where he reads live from Fifty Shades of Grey at Arse Elektronika at the Center for Sex and Culture in San Francisco and simultaneously in-game in Call of Duty: Black Ops

Gaming Performance: Fifty Shades of Black Ops

Joseph DeLappe 2012/09/27 2 Comments Performance Art

I will premiere a new, online gaming performance / intervention at Arse Electronika Festival 4PLAY.

Fifty Shades of Black Ops is a live reading and gaming performance. I will read live from the erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey by British Author, E. L. James. The reading will take place live, in real life, and ingame within a Medal of Honor: Black Ops online “Free-For-All” match. I will read aloud and type, using the ingame text messaging system.

The work is intended as a wry mash-up of cultural bench marks: mixing the wildly popular “Mommy porn” with the hyper violent, best selling First Person Shooter game. Popular erotica collides with virtual violence. Fifty Shades of Grey has, to date, sold over 40 million copies worldwide. Call of Duty: Black Ops sold over 25 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling game of all time in the US, UK and Europe.

Performance:
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Starts at 9:15 PM PDT

For ticket, schedule and further information visit:
• arse-elektronika

Center for Sex and Culture
1349 Mission Street
San Francisco, California 94103
United States of America

• delappe.net

Author: Joseph DeLappe

Joseph DeLappe is an Associate Professor of the Department of Art at the University of Nevada where he runs the Digital Media area. He is currently a 2008 Commissioned Artist at Eyebeam in New York City. Working with electronic and new media since 1983, his work in online gaming performance, electromechanical installation and real-time web-based video transmission have been shown throughout the United States and abroad. In 2006 he enacted a project dead-in-iraq, to type consecutively, all names of America’s military casualties from the war in Iraq into the America’s Army FPS online recruiting game. His work was recently featured in the exhibition Gameworld at the Laboral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial in Gijon, Spain and published in the recently released books, "Gamescenes: Art in the Age of Videogames", publisher Johan & Levi and "Videogames and Art", publisher Intellect Books. A native of San Francisco, he lives in Reno with his spouse and twin daughters.

2 thoughts on “Gaming Performance: Fifty Shades of Black Ops”

Vaneeesa Blaylock says:

2012/09/28 at 11:55

Hi Joseph! Thanks so much for joining us here on iRez!

I just realized that I’ve never published my visit with poor Mr. Gandhi in virtual prison from back in the summer of ’09! So you’ve motivated me to finally drag those out and blog them:
http://vaneeesa.wpengine.com/2012/09/28/joseph-delappe-visits-irez/

Good luck Saturday night! I wish I could be there! Perhaps you can drop by iRez after the performance and post a video, pix, or a few words.

Break a… virtual leg!

xoxo

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Krista says:

2012/09/29 at 12:39

This looks great!
I’m in a book club, and “Fifty Shades…” had kind of been an elephant in the room…to read or not to read? I think we’ve discussed whether or not to read it more than any of the books we’ve actually read!

Our next book is by Dave Eggers…lol:)

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