december 30, 2006i heard the news i called my family in iraq countless times but couldn't get through it frantically called allah in detroit but got no answer. i was sure our family had been hit by the bomb and as it turned out, allah was celebrating saddam execution and our family was fine although a piece of car landed on my brother's house back and kufah. i had to go on with my life but i stumbled through the days increasingly guilt written and ambivalent about my pleasure and successes and more and more irritated and discussed by the seeming callousness about iraq

and the war that i encountered in my fellow americans everyday. my friend, give me a gift certificate for professional massage for my birthday but i was tense and sorel's i was from all the stress i couldn't bring myself to redeem it. i couldn't a imagine myself being pampered while my family plus suffering and struggling. in early 2007, i saw an interview with a young female american soldier whose job was to drop bombs remotely on iraqi targets from a computer council in colorado and is a reporter

asked if she had any doubt or remorse about what she was doing and she answered she trust the information she got from her superiors. my brother had been killed by an explosive drop from an american helicopter that flew after a u.s. drone passed copout the area. it struck me that hajif's death had been orchestrated by someone just like this young woman pressing buttons from thousands of miles away sitting in a comfortable chair in front of a computer, completely oblivious to the destruction and cause of families whole society halfway across the world i was overwhelmed, overcome with the

feeling of intense hatred and anger toward the women in colorado and all of the fresh-faced american soldiers, but in my heart, i knew that wasn't fair. they are mostly kids caught up in a cycle of greed and power and they don't understand now eve in the age-old game of aggression and warfare, warren and raised in the united states and encapsulated sphere of privilege and safety. it is not surprising. they wouldn't be able to fathom the reality of distance of four in society and the ramification of their action. i was struck again by the english that has stayed with me

ever since hajif's death also my consciousness and memories are forever connected to the conflict zone in iraq and so many other war-torn countries across the globe my present reality has become seen a comfort zone as the young colorado soldiers. i have a warm, comfortable apartment, a hot cup of coffee or a pepper grown-up -- bruni pete said. a health club membership and wine and cheese at a friday art opening. i live in a completely comfort and security even when i am constantly worried about my family and my people. i realize i had to produce work to address the chasm between the

comfort and conflict zones both to examine the duality in which i exist and to push the limits of understanding purely in the comfort zone. i didn't want to work -- there is enough or at and rhetoric like that. it would have to be something interactive and dynamic where the viewers what have become part of the art project and i wanted to reach beyond the normal art world to have an affect on people from all walks of life who would never step into the gallery or go to an anti-war protest. the arrest of american public who remains disengaged and

isolated in their comfort zone. how are we doing on time? are we good? questions? okay. okay. well, thank you. we are going to questions right now and if you have any questions please step to the microphone. >> i would sort of like to hear more about the installation. you said when you started you didn't anticipate he would need that many paint balls. but you ended up meeting we more. did you think that it was the project was going to inspire people to have more i don't

know, humanities so they wouldn't be shooting like the person they actually sold on the screen and were you surprised that people just wanted to shoot somebody? >> i have to say i was very surprised by how the project took off right away and i think it was also surprising how polarizing it becomes. you have so many people come and shoot and thanks to the connection i think from the very beginning i didn't anticipate that many people would love and and start shooting. that is why i wasn't prepared at all but i think what happened, the internet culture is becoming very imbedded in our self right now and from the beginning i decide i wanted to create that disconnect. i want the project to have no sound at all but at the same

time, ra released eight youtube fabio on a daily basis showing the emotional roller coaster i was coming through so while people were disconnected -- they are connecting to me by viewing the youtube video and it becomes a central point when a whole culture starts building around it and there is a serious people have to follow and they will e-mail me and type in the chat room where is today's video and i think the established media also helped to bring more and more people to it. one thing i never anticipated is the brutality of people on the

internet because because i think for so many of them it was like a video game and they very much to illustrate the point i wanted to make but i think what hurt the most in the 30 day confinement and it's not getting hit by a pinball but the war people start writing the text, the hatred rhetoric people start directed against me in the chat room and what made me extremely happy is how the entire project becomes this open platform and i stepped aside and had become monitoring project without interfering and start explaining the project to each other and

later when people saw so many shooters the start to step in and that is why i think there are so many remarkable stories in the book. a for example i have a table lamp in the room and the table and had a significant because i developed traumatic stress disorder from the camp and i had to have the light in the room to remind me this is not my bedroom because when i sleep now i turn the lights off and put just earplugs and cloth over my eyes, but in the room i kept the light on. and somebody login and destroyed it to the ground. and i broke down because i knew that was the only thing, the only hope i had and less than two hours later a tall person

walked into the gallery with light bulbs and a table lamp and he introduced himself. his name was matt and he said i saw that your table lamp was destroyed and i brought you one and wanted to let you know i am a u.s. marine and i wish every marine could see this project. they would never shoot at an iraqi or at anybody else. >> what kind of responses to you get from iraqi? >> the question is what kind of response did i get from iraq he's the. it was really, really supportive. i had so many friends who would drive from different states to come and bring the food to sit

with me or to give me the moral support wanted and i think that was significant to me because that's exactly -- i'm trying to raise awareness about iraq and there was no support for iraq that would very much hurt but what was a spy ring the people from the internet mending its support because they said we are proud of this project because you left iraq 15 years ago and never forgot about iraq and i think that mattered to me very much.

>> [inaudible] [laughter] >> very good question. the final hour of the project i got a single shot that says baghdad just because people didn't know this i recorded every ip address where people shot from. [laughter] and sometimes when they hacked into my computer and some people would start writing and turned the gun on automatic and in return on would hack into their computers and would put a post-it saying stop shooting. [laughter] on the last shot it was a single shot that says this is for the green zone in baghdad. [laughter]

talking about people hacking into the computer is totally different group on the anticipated, start participating in the final days we had so many people all loss and i stopped seeing so many people start shooting and was only coming from texas and i didn't know why and so i called jason, technician and said jason, do you know what is happening here because i don't see a script and jason look and said this is worse. he said an advanced hacker build a script and turned in every idle computer to an active so if a computer is in the house and nobody uses it to the computer itself would start shooting at me and i said okay what are we going to do? he said just give me ten minutes.

jason took ten minutes and came back and all of a sudden it was silent and i said jason, what did you do and he said ivan the entire state of texas. [laughter] how often did participants attach religious significance to the project as a kind of sacrifice? >> the great question. it was very constant all the time, and was mostly attacking muslim religion and i think the religion that is demonized, you know, it is so reduced to very few words, the suicide bomber, the chehab and hate and heaven and 72 virgins, i don't know what one would do with 72 versions to be honest. but these i heard over and over and over in the chat room but

also saw other people who did attach biblical rhetoric, and i think we had one participant who becomes so upset -- obsessed with it and less verses from the bible but then i discovered he was a priest, his house kicked him out and now he start drinking and wants to redeem by writing bible verses on this ethos website. so, it was a lot of fun.

>> okay if there are no more questions, okay, we have a couple more questions. >> could you describe when someone went to the site what did they see, what were their traces and typically what did people do? >> that is a great question. i think from the very beginning when i got the idea of watching the news i went right away and started researching. how could i put technology and website together? one thing i would come across it was a cyber website, has anybody heard of cyber hunting? okay, it's a business in texas where you could longline with a gun and shoot a dear and they

would package to you the next day. i felt this is interesting, this is exactly what i want and i contacted them like there is no way we are going to give you the technology and i wanted to recall the project should an iraqi and at the beginning of wanted to put just sycophant to iraq war but the more i worked on the project, the more i start stripping any information away from the interface because they didn't want to give the impression this project about iraq so i eliminated them from the beginning. the project was extremely simple. you have screen for the room and could watch live and you have three buttons left and right and they would shoot and then they give random time between 30 seconds to about two minutes

when the gun is active and then you could shoot and a leader i added chat room which became very significant to the project, so the project was totally stripped out of any information just to get people to counter the others without ideas of what this work is about. erik, i thought you had a question. >> how did just individuals out there on the internet -- if somebody came upon the site and didn't want to shoot you will would they try to do? you know, do you try to -- keep you safe and not have -- >> as i said, the people who participated project were so diverse from people who just

wanted, paint ball players, don lovers -- gun lovers carries the technology and said don't take this personal, we just wanted to see if we press a button from china if it would shoot you and i said yes and you can see it right now. but we had to incidents' to answer your question. one is on day 14 when i was shocked at about 20,000 times and the news of the project reached dig.com and so many people started visiting at shooting. on the contrary to that would ever tried to prevent them of shooting, they start writing

scripts to bring the server down but one of remarkable thing happened just one week before the end of the project when hackers in the past, the first three weeks at the game and shoot or turned the left we start banning them but all of a sudden we see a lot of people and the gun is going left and stay in left and i didn't understand because i don't see any script but i see a lot of people doing it and it's very systematic action. they are just clicking left and in fact if you look in the document asian there is a big hole on the left side of the room so i talked to my technician and said what is going on and he said there are probably 39 people dedicating themselves to just clicking

left, and so i start chatting with them like who are you and they said we saw so many people shooting at you we established a group called the virtual human shield and we are going to defend you, and some people from the right start complaining and said wafaa not to ban these people taking the gun away and i said no, i mean, just they are members and you can direct the gone to the right and shoot and i said there are practicing their rights or should i say left. [laughter] yes, please. >> can you talking little bit more about the chat rooms and incite people may have gained about the burr by participating in the artwork? >> when you visit the site it

was very playful, you know, a guy hawking himself in a room and you could really direct a gun and shoot at him with a paint ball and you know you are not going to kill him and it's a lot of fun. a lot of people start having parties. two or three different cities they start gathering on the computers and chat and shoot. so one incident when three girls from three different cities in england start shooting and having fun, but they didn't know what the project was about and they start asking questions, asking me questions, asking other people questions, and their action changed right away and they came back and

apologized for their actions saying we didn't know where you were trying to accomplish by this project and in fact these interactions i wanted. and also, people start using the site as a dating place. de mita and i think that is the left, i'm sure that is the left. so they come to the site and just seeing great things and all of a sudden they give each of their members and disappear but they didn't know why recorded everything and i know who were these people. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> did anybody go from the left? >> i am sure there are many of them. [laughter] but i am trying to be modest. [laughter] is there a question, do you want

to come to the microphone? >> i read your book and i cried the whole night when i read it with my family. and i have a very serious question probably people didn't ask about, as you lost your brother and i lost my brother and two cousins what did you do with your anger and how did you overcome all of this? just last night i broke down while talking to my older brother regarding the the life we lost in iraq so i'm trying to see how you cope with that pain and you put it here but i want to hear it from you. >> first i have to thank you and let other people know who you are. this is one of my dearest friends and we spent years in a refugee camp and i haven't seen you in how many years?

ten years? fight here's? so, it is great to see you. that is a great question. just because what can you do in the face of atrocities. you live in the very country that attacks your country. i try to understand the human conflict in general and not place any blame on anybody. and i think placing the blame on others would only hardened their position and doesn't allow them to process what the united states is doing or what the administration is doing to iraq. i lost my brother, but keep thinking of our losses and it can only keep us living in the

persistent present. and it wouldn't allow us to move forward. and the only way i could honor my brother is by being very active in opposing the war and bring awareness to american people about what has taken place in iraq. so i hope my generation, our generation, our next generation would not go through what we have been through and one thing also i practice a lot which is one of the most power wooful things we possess as a humanist forgiveness. because it is not about others, it is about ourselves and it is about admitting losses and move forward. but the project i think helped me a great deal. i for longtime did not accept the fact i am not going to see

my brother or my father who died two months after and only when i put myself through the project on the tenth day when the gun broke down i broke down with it as well because when we exist in a conflict zone we are openly worrying about our safety. only when the gun becomes silent i allowed myself to grieve, to accept the fact that i lost him forever, so that was the first step but one thing concerned me if one gun was silent and i wrote down that way what happened when the guns became silent in iraq? what happened to the iraqi snell? what happened to the 150,000 americans soldiers who are going

to come here? how can we help process these mosses some blacks -- process? >> i have one other question. can you speak to other points in your personal life when you encountered a similar confinement? i mean what do you describe almost sounds like a prison cell. have there been other times in your life that you have also encountered that kind of confinement? >> i think that other times, two incidents. one, when i crossed the border when i ran away from their regime by intentionally cross the border. that's 1991 of march. across the border to kuwait. and i was ctu