{"id":63,"date":"2025-02-18T22:46:28","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T03:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/?p=63"},"modified":"2025-03-01T11:31:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T16:31:36","slug":"hack-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/artist-statement\/hack-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hack #2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Elon Musk has somehow obtained a position of power that is almost inconceivable, and it is as if those around him are blind to the atrocities he has committed. I witnessed his rise to ridiculous power through Twitter, my first memory being when he released “RIP Harambe” on SoundCloud under the name “Emo G Records.” This was in 2019, and I was 15 \u2013 not yet aware of who Elon Musk was, where he came from, and what he was capable of doing. In my childish nature, I thought he was “cool,” seeing him smoking weed on The Joe Rogan Experience (BBC 2018), being someone of a respectable position to do such casual things. From then on, I followed what he was doing on social media: some new SpaceX rocket, some new Tesla car, perhaps a flamethrower that could be bought by the general public. But slowly, I started to see articles surrounding his name. These articles first consisted of how he gained his wealth but led me to some more controversial topics: some whispers of Errol Musk, Elon’s father, and his emerald mines in Africa (Business Insider 2023). Then there was Tesla using child labor to mine cobalt in Africa (Reuters 2024). Sometimes there were less-serious accusations, but still, they made me curious and wary of what Elon Musk would say or do: cryptocurrency and Tesla stock market manipulation (CNBC 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this day and age, Elon Musk is heavily involved in the U.S. government and, in my opinion, garners more attention than the newly elected President Donald Trump. Because Musk is gaining so much attention, now being a prominent name in government, the artificial intelligence race, and space technology, I believe most of the public’s attention is being diverted from his alleged atrocities \u2013 particularly regarding the exploitation of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My reflection on the evolution of Elon Musk plays quite a large role in this hack, particularly the fact that Elon Musk is a mere sample of the exploitation of Africa’s resources. This is especially true when considering a third of all the minerals of the world are in Africa alone, the history of resource exploitation runs deep. Taking a closer look, we found that Africa has been a source for numerous resources throughout history, not just minerals. These resources include seaweed, wood, oil, ivory, gypsum and rubber (National Geographic 2024). With so many resources available, there must be other businessmen attempting to take advantage of the abundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our research revealed several notable members. Firstly, Errol Musk, Elon’s father, worked alongside a businessman that owned an unregistered emerald mine, and would import those emeralds during his trips overseas and have them cut in Johannesburg. He would then sell these emeralds to jewelers (Business Insider 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then found Yevgeny Prigozhin, the financier behind the Wagner Group, who established a vast security and business network in the Central African Republic (CAR) and other African countries. The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on companies linked to the Wagner Group in the CAR, citing their involvement in illicit gold and diamond mining, which funds the group’s paramilitary activities and destructive operations through companies like Lobaye Invest and Midas Ressources SARLU (U.S. Department of the Treasury 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next on our list was Dan Gertler, who leveraged his close ties with former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila to secure lucrative mining deals. In 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Gertler, accusing him of costing the DRC over $1.36 billion in lost revenues between 2010 and 2012 through these deals (Atlantic Council 2023). These mining deals granted him access to vast reserves of cobalt, copper, and other minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After identifying the driving motivation for our hack, we began to develop its identity, and our strategy for applying it to the original game, Operation. This idea of application took a lot of inspiration from Mary Flanagan’s Critical Play: Radical Game Design, and her discussion of Redressing or Reskinning. Flanagan describes how players historically transformed toys by altering their appearance to explore forbidden or serious themes \u2013 such as children dressing dolls in mourning clothes for funeral play. Similarly, we saw an opportunity to maintain Operation’s core mechanics while transforming its visual and thematic elements to address more serious issues. Our game “Extraction” attempts to put the player into the shoes of a tycoon, so to speak. We gamify the process of extracting resources from Africa to mirror how all of these various business tycoons view their business and resource extraction as a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building on Mary Flanagan’s concept of Critical Play, our hack aims to transform the original game’s lighthearted nature into a tool for reflection on global exploitation. The slight tweak of theme turns it into a commentary on colonialism and resource extraction, forcing a deeper engagement with the player, challenging them to consider how the seemingly innocent actions of “playing the game” can mirror exploitative practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our intention was to shine light on the exploitation in Africa by recontextualizing Operation’s gameplay. I feel as if most of the public’s attention has been diverted from Musk’s atrocities when considering the exploitation of Africa, and it would be worth bringing to light other bad actors in this space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a brief overview of how our game works to recontextualize, instead of removing objects from a patient, players become tycoons extracting valuable resources. The buzzer now represents getting caught committing human rights violations, where three violations result in UN sanctions (game over). While the core goal remains the same \u2013 collect the most points (now profits) \u2013 it transforms a children’s game into a bit of a commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would like to note that we used ChatGPT for rewriting the instructions of \u2018Extraction.\u2019 We did this because the original instructions were quite long, so we thought it would be a better use of our time to have an artificial intelligence write out the entirety of the  instructions instead. We then went back and made edits to make sure that the instructions were still conveying the original message we intended with our game. We acknowledge the inherent problems with AI and that it is not necessarily accurate information, but we believed for writing the instructions it would not be directly presenting direct facts to our audience, instead the rules for play based on our shorter instructions for game play. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chat citation: \u201cRewrite the instructions of Operation based on this attached document where we have reskinned the game to be a commentary on resource extraction in Africa\u201d prompt. ChatGPT, 18 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2025, chat.openai.com\/chat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlantic Council, “In a Congolese Mining Case, Biden Can Secure a Win for US Sanctions Policy in Africa,” Atlantic Council, https:\/\/www.atlanticcouncil.org\/blogs\/africasource\/in-a-congolese-mining-case-biden-can-secure-a-win-for-us-sanctions-policy-in-africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BBC News, “Elon Musk Smokes Marijuana Live on Web Show,” BBC News, September 7, 2018, https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-45445554<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Insider, “Elon Musk’s Father Errol Never Owned Emerald Mine, Says Musk,” Business Insider, September 2023, https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/elon-musk-father-errol-never-owned-emerald-mine-telling-truth-2023-9<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNBC, “Elon Musk’s Tweets Are Moving Markets,” CNBC, January 29, 2021, https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/01\/29\/elon-musks-tweets-are-moving-markets.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters, “US Appeals Court Dismisses Child Labor Case Against Tech Companies,” Reuters, March 5, 2024, https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/us-appeals-court-dismisses-child-labor-case-against-tech-companies-2024-03-05\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design (2009)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Geographic, “Africa: Resources,” National Geographic Education, https:\/\/education.nationalgeographic.org\/resource\/africa-resources\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SoundCloud, “Rip Harambe,” SoundCloud, https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-209448905\/rip-harambe1<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Press Release: Treasury Announces New Sanctions,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/news\/press-releases\/jy2384<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk has somehow obtained a position of power that is almost inconceivable, and it is as if those around him are blind to the atrocities he has committed. I witnessed his rise to ridiculous power through Twitter, my first memory being when he released “RIP Harambe” on SoundCloud under the name “Emo G Records.”… Continue reading Hack #2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artist-statement","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoder.dcreate.domains\/dig401\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}