FOLLOWER by Paul Vanouse, 1995 |
Vanouse projects |
Follower is an interactive, electronic
installation, with which individual users may 'play' through a
free-standing, coin-op and track-ball console. The game is viewed on a
large projection screen suspended several feet in front of this
console. The title of the work defines three intertwined components of
the work: the user is engaged in following/tracking a hidden enemy, the
user is required to follow/obey directives from the commander --
General Jawbone, and the actions of the user are followed/monitored by
other entities who are also unseen. The work is a hyperbolic video game
which questions the heroic portrayal of authoritarian violence in
American pop culture, and the methods of first-world military
operations in the post-Vietnam era.
The installation work begins as
fast-paced, arcade-style adventure, with an abstracted enemy and
gradually gives way to visceral photographic images, and references to
"real-world" social content, such as the Iran-Contra affair and the
Panema Invasion.
Installation components include: Interactive graphical program, Macintosh computer, video projector, powered speakers, miscellaneous electronic circuits, wood, aluminum, steel, arcade coin-op, buttons and track-ball parts.