The Barometer Online

Issue date: 3/6/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Cory Reed Josh Berger, creative director and cofounder of Plazm Magazine, performs his piece "Collateral Damage," on Thursday in the Memorial Union Lounge. The piece involves Berger marking an "X" for each civilian casualty in the Iraq War.

Joshua Berger, the creative director and co-founder of the Portland-based design firm Plazm, displayed and worked on his ongoing project, "Collateral Damage," Thursday evening in the MU Lounge.

Berger covered blank sheets with numerous X's to commemorate deaths in the Iraq war. Each mark represents a single civilian death. The piece was on display at the University of Massachusetts in the fall.

"I think Josh's work is very cross-disciplinary and has social and political views," said Andrea Marks, an associate professor in the art department.

Marks invited Berger to speak in her Art 412 class, Contemporary Issues in Design. They set up a table in the middle of the lounge before Berger spoke. He tirelessly penned marks for over an hour, occasionally stopping to stretch his hand.

Berger got the idea for "Collateral Damage" when he saw an October 2006 article in the New York Times about the Iraq War. The article contained statistics estimating that 600,000 Iraqi civilians had died.

"Seeing that article just blew me away," he said. "I just had the idea that I'm just going to make a mark for every one of those."

Berger said his intent was not to minimize the U.S. casualties in the war, but rather to bring awareness to the situation. He regularly loses track of the marks despite careful attempts to record them. He continues marking X's, relating this imprecision to the approximate nature of the body count.

"I think it's a incredibly simple and powerful visual message about war," Marks said.

Berger currently has 25 pages set in pine frames. He estimates he will have 80 frames by the time he finishes.

"I think they look aesthetically really pleasing when they're together," said Chris Arth, a senior in graphic design. "To stop and think about it is really provocative."

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