HW 9.3 Code Artist - Hunter Jonakin

One of the strangest artworks I have heard of in recent years involves a lot of creative coding. Artist Hunter Jonakin created a piece called JKMD!!! (Jeff Koons Must Die) (2011.) The piece is a video game, in the style of "first person shooter" in which the goal is to destroy as much of Jeff Koons' artwork inside a gallery as possible, however, the game is un-winnable, as security guards/gallery attendants come out to protect the work. 

Video preview here: https://vimeo.com/21404544

Download available here: http://hunterjonakin.com/koons.php#

The artist has said in interviews that he admires the work of Koons, and does not hate him or his work, but rather that he was the subject of the piece because he is "at the top of the art food-chain." The work is typical of video games in some ways - depictions of violence, fast-paced, but atypical in its depiction of art works and the art world. The work is pixelated and uses the aesthetics of early 1980s/1990s video games. The coding used in this game is to achieve retro results, and also to be quite destructive. The work also takes a unique form as art piece because it has been shown internationally in galleries, housed in a 1980s style arcade game console, but the game is also available as a free download on the artist's website. It has been shown, and can be available for free. It is part of the gallery system, but also open-source. This work is paradoxical and intriguing, and received a great deal of online attention several years ago. The artist does not work exclusively in video games as art works, but has created other video game based artworks before. The funniest part of the press on this work, was a quote from the artist, Jonakin, regarding his work -- that he hoped Jeff Koons might play this game at home to blow off steam sometimes. (Observer, 2013.)