Work / Panopticon

Created by fully automated scripts using source images from the Internet.

Panopticon Cruft

Updated at 5:38 AM EST
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Panopticon Cruft (fragments)

Working in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, I produce this cruft by processing recent information on the government web site, transforming text into a short poem.

Images from an online surveillance camera used to ensure our safety makes a record of all activity. These surveillance images are processed into a video and the poem becomes the scrolling text along the bottom to create this Panopticon Cruft.

Mission Statement: Department of Homeland Security

Homeland Security Act of 2002

Title I - Department of Homeland Security
Sec. 101. Executive Department; Mission

(a) Establishment. - "There is established a Department of Homeland Security, as an executive department of the United States within the meaning of title 5, United States Code.
(b) Mission
(1) In General. - The primary mission of the Department is to
(A) prevent terrorist attacks within the United States;
(B) reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism; and
(C) minimize the damage, and assist in the recovery, from terrorist attacks that do occur within the United States."

From the Homeland Security Act of 2002

Read the entire text of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (PDF, 187 pages - 526 KB).

Borrowing the computer hacker term "Cruft" I have applied it to my current series of images. 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.