Fascination with the (Game of the) Exploding (Historical) Hollow Leg
1983

Multimedia installation with live performance and symposium

A simulated war room was mounted at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which is nearby the nuclear weapons facility of Rocky Flats and the headquarters of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The show included maps on which Rosler indicated bases and military emplacements, including nuclear ones, of the U.S. and the USSR, and blowups of articles on the pursuit and costs of war. Monitors played a melange of video clips: a tour of the secretive NORAD headquarters, the tiny screens of handheld electronic games, scenes from war comics, footage of antimilitarist demonstrations, and sequences from the movies Star Wars and War Games. At the end is footage of a protest in which Rosler participated with thousands of other people ringing Rocky Flats.

Rosler filmed the installation of the piece, which exists as Fascination with the (Game of the) Exploding (Historical) Hollow Leg (installation tape), 1983.