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).
What is CRUFT?
cruft /kruhft/ [back-formation from {crufty}]
1. n. An unpleasant substance. The dust that gathers under your bed is cruft; the TMRC Dictionary correctly noted that attacking it with a broom only produces more.
2. n. The results of shoddy construction.
3. vt. [from `hand cruft', pun on `hand craft'] To write assembler code for something normally (and better) done by a compiler (see {hand-hacking}).
4. n. Excess; superfluous junk; used esp. of redundant or superseded code.
5. [University of Wisconsin] n. Cruft is to hackers as gaggle is to geese; that is, at UW one properly says "a cruft of hackers".
The Jargon File, version 4.4.7 http://catb.org/jargon/html/C/cruft.html
I am interested in how the ideas and images presented to us by the media affect our world view. As the ever present cable news cycle pushes a daily message of fear, filled with political polarization; domestic and foreign terrorism; recent kidnapped white girls; celebrity scandals; and the imminent threat of hurricane, earthquake or flood, I began to think about how these digital images and text operated, one day influencing our daily discourse, the next day vanishing without a trace. Digital leftovers reminded me of redundant computer programming. Code that was once useful, but later forgotten and obsolete.
For my current work I have borrowed the computer hacker term 'Cruft', defined as an unpleasant substance; excess; superfluous junk; and redundant or superseded computer code. To create this work I call CRUFT, I write simple algorithms that an automated computer system follows. The instructions outline what websites to target, and the system then downloads selected images and text, which are then used as source material, and remixed to create new artwork on a schedule that imitates the 24 hour cable news cycle.