Proposal for the New American Flag

Proposal for The New American Flag (photography, video, performance, installation, interactive media).

Proposal for the New American Flag is an intervention in the form of a museum exhibition, designed to draw attention to the changes in American culture and laws since 11 September, 2001. This work was first shown at the 2007 Nohl Fellowship Exhibition at the Institute of Visual Arts. Catalog, with catalog essay by Sarah Kanouse.

 Installation view. Institute of Visual Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, October 12, 2007.

Screenshot of the proposed design and excerpts from letters from the website (99starflag.com) that accompanies the Exhibition, Proposal for The New American Flag (2007).

Changes to The American Flag, 32 x 40” Poster for display in the Exhibition, Proposal for The New American Flag (2007). Inkjet Print mounted on gator board.

40 x 32” Poster for display in the Exhibition, Proposal for The New American Flag (2007). Inkjet Print mounted on gator board.

Screenshot of the interactive map from the website (99starflag.com) that accompanies the Exhibition, Proposal for The New American Flag: Representing a New Constellation (2007).

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Who is Stealing My Signs?

An interventionist, performative, and net-based project, Who is Stealing my Signs? documents my attempts to protect a political yard sign during the US presidential election season in 2004.

Devising a Rube Goldberg-esqe surveillance, alarm, and reporting system made from fishing wire, motion detectors, cooking oil, an infrared video camera, an 8 hour VHS tape, and a website hosted on angelfire.com, I captured several failed attempts to steal the yard sign, in addition to the often humorous and surprised reactions of the unwitting would-be sign thieves.  By crafting my complaint using the rhetoric of an audio-visual narrative, I succeeded in soliciting the help of TV news and radio to tell my story in the local media vernacular. Of course when one hands control of the narrative over to another producer, one relinquishes control of certain aspects of agency and accuracy in exchange for recognition and sensation.

But how else could one respond to the tropes of the local media vernacular, where digital remixing is possible, and the best chance to reclaim agency? A Video Vigilante Fair Use Mashup, of course.