2010 SPE Annual ConferenceSpeakers

Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal, a professor at Tisch School of the Arts,
New York University, has been recognized worldwide for his
interactive and dynamic Internet encounters that explore conflict
and provoke dialogue. His installation Domestic Tension placed
him in front of a paintball gun which people could shoot at him
over the internet, 24 hours a day for a month. Newsweek called
it "breathtaking." The month- long piece spurred online debates
and intense conversations, garnering the praise of the Chicago
Tribune, which called it "one of the sharpest works of political
art to be seen in a long time" and named him Artist of the Year
in 2007.In fall 2008, City Lights published Shoot an Iraqi: Life,
Art and Resistance Under the Gun, about Bilal's life and the
Domestic Tension project. Most recently Bilal was named one of
the year's "15 Most Politically Fascinating People of 2008" by the
online magazine GamePolitics.com.