Artist Statement

We Come in Peace (WCIP) is a 3D antiwar game addressing issues of non-­‐violence, absorption and play. In the game, players absorb weapons from the surface of planet Earth using tractor beams emitted by customizable UFOs. The goal of the game is the eradication of all weapons from the planet. The game is deployed across the “real” earth using terrestrial satellite data. Players can localize to any longitude or latitude location, or choose a preset city. Weapons are generated dynamically at each location using brute force spawning algorithms. At ISEA 2015, we propose a live public performance in which participants play to remove no less than 1,000,000 weapons from the planet.
The issue of weapons proliferation continues to plague the planet. Given the scope of the problem, We Come In Peace proposes a solution from the most unlikely place ~ outer space. Leveraging publicly available datasets of earth terrain and known weapons data, the game proposes a solution to earth’s many wars: total eradication of both known and unknown weapons stockpiles. The political and aesthetic strategies employed by the game include: engaged Buddhism activism, “ahimsa” (nonviolence), the reclamation of public data for simulation and play, and a healthy dose of hyperbole and levity through the creative deployment of spaceships and laser beams in a thought-provoking game.

We Come in Peace was developed at the CADRE Media Lab, San José State University and the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) in Paris, France.

• Gary Craig Hobbs, San José State University CADRE Media Lab (USA). Hobbs is an artist, writer, and filmmaker whose work addresses themes at the intersection of nature, culture, and technology. His research and creative praxis focus on issues of embodiment, affect, time, and space in digital art and culture, and has been presented at Harvard University and UC Irvine. Hobbs was awarded a University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA) Emerging Fields grant for his thesis research In Situ Δ ~ The Embodied Search. During this time, he served as Research Associate in the Digital Arts and New Media program at UCSC conducting research into metadata tagging, infrared computer vision, and open-source software for use in live cinema, locative media, and installation environments. Hobbs produced the science fiction short film Solatrium which premiered at the 2011 Slamdance Film Festival and the Korean International Science Fiction Film Festival. Hobbs also produces large-scale art projects and events, and was the Technical Producer for the 2010 01SJ Biennial in San Jose, California, working with artists Natalie Jeremijenko, Usman Haque, Blast Theory, Andrea Polli, Yung-Ta Chang, Rockwell Group, Paul D. Miller, and fabric | ch. Hobbs received his BFA from California Institute of the Arts and his MFA from the Digital Arts and New Media program at University of California, Santa Cruz. From 2009-2012, he lectured at the University of California, Santa Cruz and California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, and is currently Assistant Professor in Art and Art History at San Jose State University. sjsu.edu/art/community/faculty/digitalmedia/craig_hobbs