Aram Bartholls Amazing Video Game Art Installations

6 Amazing Video Game Art Installations

You might not know Berlin based artist Aram Bartholl by name, but odds are good you've seen his work floating around the Web. Remember the massive Google Maps marker? What about the USB drives that popped up in brick walls across NYC? How about the time he helped build a fake Google Street View car, then pretended to track it with GPS and record the driver's antics?

Like those infamous examples, much of Bartholl's work centers around public installations and interventions that explore what happens when the digital concepts enter the real world. From time to time, he's turned that lens on video games, drawing inspiration from everything from Counter Strike and Need for Speed to Second Life and World of Warcraft. The results are always clever, usually entertaining, and, above all else, profoundly thought provoking.

Here are six of Bartholl's gaming themed works, presented with a bit of background on the games that inspired them.

6. de_dust

In 2004, Bartholl created perfect replicas of the crates from Counter Strike 1.6 map de_dust, then installed them in public spaces. Not cool enough for you? He's currently planning to build a full scale replica of the entire map in concrete that he then intends to open to the public. Hopefully no one brings an AWP.

5. Speed

For this public installation, Bartholl built a real-world version of the giant, flashing arrows commonly used in racing games to keep you on course. This specific piece was modeled off the arrows from Need for Speed Underground 2.

4. First Person Shooter

In another Counter Strike-inspired piece, Bartholl designed paper glasses that replicate the experience of playing a first person shooter by superimposing arms and a gun over everything you see. Want to make your own? Bartholl's site has a template you can print out and piece together.

3. 1H

In 2008, Bartholl held a workshop where he helped World of Warcraft players recreate their favorite one-handed weapons from the game in papercraft, then encouraged them to wear them in public as performance art.

2. Jump 'n Run

This video shows the result of a four day workshop Bartholl held with Chinese media and design students. The group reenacts gameplay from Super Mario Bros. live on the streets of Shanghai

6. WoW

Another workshop, WoW helps people recreate their names in the iconic World of Warcraft font. The names are then mounted onto clear plastic tubing and held above the participants' heads by volunteers to mimic the behavior of in-game player labels.