Information Hunter Gatherer

Information Hunter Gatherer is a video game where the player can reflect upon their relationship with mass media. The player takes on the role of hunter as they point an electronic toy gun at a projected screen.

Using a gun originally intended for the Nintendo Wii, the audience is drawn into the role of news hunters and gatherers. The original impetus for this project was a study of my own behavior when selecting news stories from Internet RSS feeds. I saw myself and began to observe others as consumers of information. Consumer is not used here in the sense of purchasing goods, but instead the eating of food. This logically brought me to the conclusion that since most Americans are detached from the process of food creation (hunting/farming), they replace this primordial survival instinct with the consumption of information provided by the mass media. Most news stories are centered around violence, whereas Cro-Magnon man experiences violent acts in the killing of animals. This predatorial instinct is not lost when someone is merely sitting on a couch watching the 24 hour news, it is translated into habitual viewing and reading.

Documentation video