CyberTank

Edward Elliott

Senior Seminar 2021

Artist Statement – In a broad sense the essence of warfare has not changed over the decades, but the tools that are used in waging war have evolved tremendously over time. Humanity has gone from steel and armor to gunpowder and vehicles and are now using computers to do their attacks. As the digital age progresses, various governments have been paying more attention to the use of warfare through the internet, often referred to as cyber warfare. Through this method of attacks, combatants can strike their enemies over long distances by spreading malware and destructive infiltrators to not only military systems, but to civilian infrastructure and businesses. While many companies and government agencies have gone great lengths to defend their servers from online attacks, most people on the street either don’t know about the risk or don’t understand the potential threats that a wide-scale cyber attack could have on their lives.

In order to shed light on this issue, my project attempts to give an interactive metaphor for cyber warfare for people to get an idea of what can be at stake. Using a few real world events to get examples from, I crafted art and sprites in Aseprite and coded a short game in Scratch to display an image of war as most people may know it and translate it into a simplified cyber attack on an unknown server. It then leads into several scenes of the aftermath of the attack, with each outcome based on what type of server was destroyed, be it commercial, infrastructure, or military. My goal is to have this project show people that cyber warfare will soon become a much more prevalent threat in their lives, and perhaps help them see how important protecting their devices can be.

About the artistMy name is Edward Elliott, and I am a DMA Major. I’ve always enjoyed creating both drawn and digital art, especially pixel art and animation. I also stream and work in information technology, so my life is incredibly digital.