Strip — Shift — Impose — Recycle — Overload — Spill — Breakout — Abuse. Artists’ (Mis-)Appropriations of Shooter Games

What started as a hacker attitude of writing patches to modify shooter games has developed into a genre of artworks, artistic endeavours that use shooter games in a variety of critical ways or that contextualize them in novel variations. These artworks and their special attitude of (mis-)appropriation are enriching the complex discourse around the shoot-em-ups with staggering aspects, ascertaining the inconclusiveness of the whole discussion by demonstrating a cunning flux of issues for consideration. In the following essay this field of artworks will be presented from a design perspective, framing it within eight different modes of de- and re-construction: strip, shift, impose, recycle, overload, spill, breakout, and abuse.