The ongoing controversy over the “Virtual Jihadi” video game and art exhibit, which was banished by top Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute officials on opening night, has colleges re-examining the importance of art — and free speech— on campus.“One of our roles at college museums is to be provocative in the best of ways, to provoke conversation to start a dialogue with different kinds of audiences,” said Ian Berry, associate director and Malloy curator at Skidmore College’s Tang Museum. “Colleges and universities are the perfect site for that activity.”RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson ordered “Virtual Jihadi” shut down earlier this month, based on the fact that artist Wafaa Bilal appropriated the game from a terrorist organisation.“Virtual Jihadi” is a first-person shooter game played from the perspective of an Iraqi militant. On the final stage of the game, Bilal himself is depicted as a suicide bomber on a mission to assassinate President Bush.RPI’s decision came after a campus Republican group called the school’s art department a “safe haven” for terrorists.Critics say Jackson’s move violated Bilal’s free speech, and deprived students and the public of a chance to see a thought-provoking work of art.Bilal said the game, which also features “jihad” music sung in Arabic, is meant as a commentary on how the US war in Iraq has left young Iraqis vulnerable to terrorist recruitment.Berry said he was concerned about the situation at RPI.“I don’t like the idea of censorship,” he said. “And I certainly don’t like the idea of artists’ projects being censored or shut down once we’ve committed to working with them.”The Tang has an advisory board stocked with Skidmore administrators, but Berry has never felt pressure from the school to censor an exhibit.“Artists are often the first line of critical commentary on current events,” said Berry. “I have never said ‘no’ to an artist because their work was too controversial.”RPI’s arts department has always had something of a separate culture from the rest of the school. But an even more sizable rift has developed over Bilal’s work. On a campus where the faculty came within six votes of declaring no confidence in Jackson in 2006, arts faculty and administrators are now even more wary of each other and of how future exhibits and performances will be handled.“We’re going to conduct a review of protocol, to make sure appropriate processes are in place to evaluate our exhibits,” said RPI administrator spokesman Jason Gorss. “A task force has been formed to review the current process.”Kathy High, head of the RPI arts department, said she is “embarrassed” by the school’s actions.“If a project like this, where Wafaa is so articulate about his art and the meaning behind it, gets shut down, what else are they going to not allow here?” said High. “In a university especially, there should be freedom of speech, and this is exactly where individuals should be able to show these kinds of work. That’s what a university is for.”After the Bilal exhibit was kicked off the Troy, New York, campus, it was moved to the nearby Sanctuary for Independent Media, run by RPI professors Steve Pierce and Branda Miller. Soon after, Rensselaer County Legislator Bob Mirch, who also heads the city’s Department of Public Works, led a protest outside the Sanctuary, while Bilal discussed his work inside. Then city officials ordered the Sanctuary closed for code violations.
