Imprisoned by the Media

The spectacle of the media is a 21st century form of terror due to its manipulation and ideological influence. Events, information, ideas, and images are filtered, packaged, and delivered to our television screens as soundbytes, slogans, logos, and banners, seducing us into a state of narcosis and submission. This state of affairs is only compounded in times of crisis such as we have experienced since 9/11: the media and the manipulation of its content must be understood as a breakdown between credible, meaningful communication and the frightening distortion of reality that confronts us today – a direct assault on the delicate balance of our 228 year experiment with democracy.

Fox News with its unabashed right-wing leanings and promotion of government tactics, packaged in hyper-patriotic logos and graphics, has become the "TerrorVision" of our time. The viewer of the broadcast medium resides in a self-imposed prison walled by the Orwellian image of the spectacle. Unfortunately, the seductive nature of broadcast news hypnotizes the viewer into a state in which they don't even realize they are behind bars.

The Media Deconstruction Kit (MDK) is an attempt to break this illusion by superimposing our own techniques of media and illusion as an act of artistic mediation.