Work
What I do, and what I've done.
Robert Spahr: Interviewed by John Hutchinson
Q: So, Robert, you create these images you call 'Cruft' by writing computer programs that download source images from the Internet, and out of this material these programs then make Cruft, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
SPAHR: Yes.
Q: Some people have said that you do not really create art but are only reusing the work of others. How do you respond to such comments?
SPAHR: I agree with them.
Q: You agree with them?
SPAHR: Yes.
Q: Do you also agree when they claim your work lacks feelings of the beautiful and the sublime of a true handmade work of art?
SPAHR: Definitely. I gave up traditional art. I just don't believe in it anymore. Now I create all my work with machines.
Q: You mean with computers and the Internet? But you actually automate the work don't you? You just write the programs once, and the computer executes them over and over again, each time making a Cruft?
SPAHR: Yes. Crufts are so much easier than my previous traditional work. Technology makes things easy, and fast! If I need an image of something, it's so much faster to search the Internet, say with a search engine like Google, than it is to actually take a photograph myself.
Q: It must be difficult to learn to write these types of automated computer programs. Did it take you a long time to develop this skill?
SPAHR: No, not really. Anyone can make a Cruft. You just put images together. They always surprise me by looking better than I had imagined. And once I write the script, I set the timer and forget all about them. The computer just keeps making more and more images. I sort of "Set It, and Forget It."
Q: What about your source images? How do you decide which ones to use?
SPAHR: I use chance as much as possible. It is so much easier that way. I make a random selection and then I don't have to really think about it.
Q: What social commentary or political message do you put into your Cruft images?
SPAHR: None. I don't put anything into the Crufts but the source images.
Q: But you seem to use so many political images. For example in your "Mire Cruft", your source images come from Al Jazeera, and the Whitehouse.gov websites. Surely you are making some political comment?
SPAHR: Well... I am using current images from the Internet. Every Cruft is a snapshot of the images from the time of it's creation. These images from the news are very familiar to all of us. We see them all the time. You don't have to think about them. Cruft are made from these digital leftovers of the news.
Q: But what about your use of images of the President, from the Department of Defense, or military websites? You even juxtapose some of these images with ones taken from Internet porn sites. Do you have some message you are trying to communicate with these images?
SPAHR: No. These images are familiar. We see them all the time in the media, and all over the Internet. The images of the Bush administration is just a reflection of what's in the news. President Bush is mentioned so often these days. His entire administration is being talked about. Besides everyone I know wants publicity. It must be fun to be the "Decider."
Q: Do you plan to start making real art again? You know, the traditional art you used to make, sculpture and drawings?
SPAHR: I stopped making sculpture a long time ago. I don't believe in it anymore. I was doing commercial work, as a web producer during the Dot Com bubble, thats when I learned the technical skills I needed to write the Cruft algorithms and scripts. Shortly after 9/11, I began to experiment with automated scripts that produce Cruft images. The Dot Com bubble burst and 9/11 happened, all within about a year of one another. Out of those events I began making Cruft.
Q: So why do you use the main image from CNN.com in your Premise Cruft?
SPAHR: I like CNN. So I always use the image on the CNN website.
Q: Do you always use images that you like?
SPAHR: Yes.
Q: Even the ones on CNN?
SPAHR: I really like Wolf Blitzer. I thought he was good during the first Gulf War, now he seems to be on CNN no matter what time of the day I watch. He brings us the news whenever or where ever it is happening. He really is the personification of CNN. I suppose that makes Cruft sort of Wolf Blitzer leftovers. What a great name, Wolf Blitzer Cruft.
Q: So why do you make Crufts?
SPAHR: It keeps me busy. I am always working.
Q: So could you tell me more about yourself, and your creative process?
SPAHR: I already have.
*This interview is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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