The Reno-based artist Joseph DeLappe (b. 1963, San Francisco) has been working with electronic and new media since 1983. His work in online gaming, performance, sculpture, and electromechanical installation is intended to forge connections among concept, object, and interaction, touching on issues ranging from pure aestheticism to contemporary geopolitics. The theoretical basis for his work lies in the belief that it is essential, as an artist and citizen of the world, to engage with and challenge the norms and expectations of the digital present and the larger cultural context. In 2006 DeLappe began the project dead‐in‐iraq,
typing consecutively all the names of U.S. military casualties from the war in Iraq into the America’s Army first-person shooter online recruiting game. He also directs the iraqimemorial.org project, an ongoing web-based exhibition and open call for proposed memorials to the many thousands of civilian casualties from the war in Iraq.
DeLappe received his BS in graphic design from San José State University (1986), and an MA in computers in art and design (1988) and an MFA in pictorial arts (1990) from the CADRE Institute at San José State University. He has exhibited widely, including at Task Force, Los Angeles (2015), Musée de la Main UNIL-CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland (2015), Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Vancouver (2015), the Istanbul Design Biennial (2014), LEAP, Berlin (2014), Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2014), Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2014), Stuttgarter Filmwinter—Festival for Expanded Media, Germany (2014), the International Video and Electronic Arts Festival, Mexico City (2013), the Block, Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane, Australia (2013), Dark Horse Experiment, Melbourne, Australia (2013), Refusalon, San Francisco (2013), Young Projects, Los Angeles (2011), Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space, New York (2011), Works/San Jose (2011), Flux Factory, Long Island City, New York (2011), Where Where Exhibition Space, Beijing (2011), Kleio Projects, New York (2011), Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, Michigan (2011), FACT Liverpool, England (2010), the 798 Beijing Biennale (2009), the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2008), Eyebeam, New York (2008), the Busan International Film Festival, South Korea (2007), and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007).
