Documentary filmmaker and self-described transmedia producer Nonny de la Pena spoke at UC Santa Cruz Wednesday about "Gone Gitmo," a virtual reality film project about Guantanamo Bay.
"Gone Gitmo" is a representation of Guantanamo Bay inside an online virtual world called Second Life. De la Pena, who also made a documentary film about Guantanamo Bay called "Unconstitutional" in 2004, worked with Peggy Weil, a visiting associate professor of cinematic arts at the University of Southern California, to build the virtual space in 2007.
"The real prison is completely inaccessible to all but a very few lawyers and NGOs," de la Pena said. "We wanted to build an accessible space, to increase the conversation."
Every Second Life user has an avatar, a 3-D graphic to represent him or herself. Ordinarily, a user has complete control over the avatar's movements. But as soon as your avatar dons its orange jumpsuit and enters the "Gone Gitmo" installation, de la Pena explained, that control is taken away.
The screen goes blank as a prison guard drops a black hood over your head, and you hear sounds taken from real Guantanamo Bay footage as you are taken to the prison in a military transport plane. When the hood is removed, your avatar finds itself kneeling in a small cage, which was based on photographs of Camp X-Ray where detainees were held.
"People find it disturbing," de la Pena said. "People have true physiological responses to their avatar." At this point, de la Pena said, you regain control of your avatar, and can explore the facility. But you are constantly confronted on all sides, including the floor, with videos of real prisoners being led around the camp. The videos were released by the Department of Defense. There is no torture chamber in "Gone Gitmo." "We didn't want to trivialize that," de la Pena said. Instead, there is a "contemplation chamber," where you can read and hear quotes from public figures who advocate closing Guantanamo Bay, poems written by detainees, and transcripts of interrogations. Since only people who are signed up for Second Life can experience "Gone Gitmo," de la Pena worked with blogger Berhnard Drax to make a "machinima," a fusion of machines and cinema, report depicting the experience. Drax was recently given the "Every Human Has Rights" media award for the report, and will go to Paris in December for a ceremony celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "Gone Gitmo" has also been featured in publications like Vanity Fair, NewScientist and the Chronicle of Higher Education. The talk was part of the Art, Technology, and Culture colloquium at UC Santa Cruz. The small audience consisted mainly of students and faculty from the university's digital arts and new media department, said department chair Sharon Daniel.
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