“Anomy, for U.S. News” by Megan Monte, Brian Questa
Title:
- Anomy, for U.S. News
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
Venue(s):
Medium:
- Media Installation with RSS and XML feeds, C# code, Supercollider code, video projection, and sound
Size:
- dimensions variable
Artist Statement:
Anomy, for U.S. News is a generative audiovisual artwork constructed with C# and Supercollider code to redact words containing the letter “e” from news streams across the United States in real time. Streams of text and black redaction boxes are programmed to circulate around viewers and generate notes in a musical score that neither repeats nor ends. Reminiscent of both piano rolls and classified documents, the work is intended as a diverse musical work and a thought-provoking visual record navigating mass media, censorship, and language in contemporary society.
The term “Anomy” was popularized in Emile Durkheim’s 1897 sociological study of the social roots of suicide and is commonly defined as a condition characterized by a breakdown in social values and norms. The multivalent qualities of contemporary media experience produce such breakdowns in language, truth, and meaning, as typified by disinformation campaigns and the cultural emergence of “fake news.” Inspired by constrained writing and concrete poetry such as Georges Perec’s “La Disparition,” we use the lipogram as an interpretation-form, emphasizing issues of subjectivity and control as well as conventions of style and language in news media. Centering itself around the loss of “e” both in text and sound, Anomy, for U.S. News seeks to induce viewers to contemplate new linguistic structures in a condition of absence
