Fort Paladin: America’s Army is a mediaeval shaped castle, fabricated from hard drive cases and incorporating two computers.

One computer runs America’s Army, 2002—the official US Army recruitment video game, freely available online–displayed on a monitor integrated into a castle wall. The second computer runs a so-called expert system (artificial intelligence software) written to play the game by using robotic pistons to punch the keys in a keyboard located under the monitor.

The sculpture is positioned just above floor level. The work draws on the subcultures of custom computer case modifications, hardware hacking and computer game modifications. It demonstrates how war, a recurrent subject in fine art over the centuries, has become entertainment but remains as barbaric as it was in the Middle Ages.

Eddo Stern works on the disputed borderlands between fantasy and reality, exploring the uneasy and otherwise unconscious connections between physical existence and electronic simulation. His work explores new modes of narrative and documentary, experimental computer game design, fantasies of technology and history, and cross-cultural representation in computer games, film, and online media.

He works in various media including computer software and hardware, kinetic sculpture, performance, and film and video production. His short digital films include Sheik Attack, Vietnam Romance, Landlord Vigilante and Deathstar. He is the founder of the now retired cooperative C-level where he produced the physical computer gaming projects Waco Resurrection, Tekken Torture Tournament, and Cockfight Arena.

Since 1999, his work has been shown at international venues including Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis); MuHKA (Antwerp); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid); Museum Ludwig (Cologne); Tate Gallery Liverpool; Institute of Contemporary Art (London); New Museum (New York), ICC (Tokyo); Art Gallery of Ontario; and Rotterdam Film Festival. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.