About / Misdirection as Mass Deception

Text and Writings

Misdirection as Mass Deception


Misdirection:
1. The audience will look where the magician looks.
2. A larger movement will conceal a smaller movement.
3. Tell a story, keep the audience occupied and direct their attention.

My current research builds upon the images used in mass media to propagate fear and distraction, as well as some of the images the mainstream media chooses not to show.

Like the magician performing sleight-of-hand to deceive and misdirect the eye, those in power tell us where to look and what to think. The mass media provides the stage where the deception unfolds focusing the public's attention with emotion and fear.

Who controls these images? Who is allowed to speak? Who is silenced? Who worships the most? Who salutes the longest? Whose truth is your truth?

CRUFT are images made from the digital leftovers of the misdirection presented to us by the media. Distracted from the real issues, the media keeps us occupied on the infotainment of the day. I create these CRUFT images by writing 'recipes' (also known as an algorithm). An automated system follows the instructions, first harvesting selected source material from the Internet, and then processing that information into a CRUFT, generating images 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Elegy to the American Republic is a series of images created from 200 source photos of our fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan as they come home in flag draped coffins. Photos of American war dead are currently not shown by the main stream media. In my original online installation, everytime an image was viewed it would be physically altered and slightly degrade. With many separate viewings they would dissolve and gradually become white and disappear into the page. These degraded images have now become the source for a series of mixed media paintings that raise awareness of the real cost of the U.S. occupation. Unlike the official discourse which doubts the patriotism of anyone who opposes the war, while simultaneously questioning their support of our troops.

Just like the audience of a magic show, we willingly suspend our disbelief and watch the illusions and want to believe. I hope my recent work can pierce (at least temporarily) the willingness to believe and make us conscious of the use of misdirection as mass deception.

--
Robert Spahr
New York City
November 1st 2007