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CONFIDENTIAL (INFORMATION
OVERLORD) by Sarah
Kavage
public installation, 7 - 8:30 AM, July 2, 2004, Seattle, Washington
Sarah Kavage writes:
I chose a phrase, INFORMATION OVERLORD,
that I kept secret for the duration of the project,
and constructed the phrase by sewing together
large letters from leftover plastic packaging. >>> |
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[highlight text to decipher message]
I selected seven locations throughout
the city
that would be highly visible to people coming
into the city during rush hour: Aurora overpass
at 42nd St. (facing southbound traffic) (ON)
The 520 overpass at MOHAI/Montlake (facing
westbound traffic) (LORD) The pedestrian over-
pass on Fauntleroy Way (facing northbound
traffic) (I) The I-5 overpass at Madison St. (facing
northbound traffic) (IN) The Central Library (FORM)
The University Street station of the downtown bus
tunnel (south mezzanine) (OVER) The Dravus
overpass at 15th Ave. (facing southbound traffic) (AT)
The message was displayed in fragments
through-
out the city from 7 - 8:30 AM on Friday, July 2. A
crew of volunteers – none of which knew the full
message - displayed it and documented the project.
This piece is an obscure, sideways comment on
transmission and obfuscation of information - how
we get it, where it comes from, how it's conveyed,
and whether we even notice it when it's right in front
of us. Our limited perspectives privilege us to only
the tiniest bits of information, forcing us to try to make
sense out of a scattering of random data points.
For this project I put myself in a position of having
control over who had access to what information.
Throughout the construction of the piece, although I
told people I was working on a
secret project,' I kept the
message a secret. The
participants who helped
me hang the piece
throughout the city were
crucial, not only in their
participation, but in their
ignorance. In addition to
not knowing the entire
message, the participants were given very limited
instructions, and were told not to communicate
with each other. Anyone coming into the city
this morning who saw the various pieces of the
message may not even have noticed or interpreted
it as a message, and if they did, it was almost
impossible to see enough pieces of the message
to decipher it or understand its fuller context.
~Sarah Kavage |
