[ISEA2019] Artists Statement: Patrick Monte & Brian Questa – Anomy, for U.S. News

Artists Statement

Media Installation with RSS and XML feeds, C# code, Supercollider code, video projection, and sound, dimensions variable.

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

  • Patrick Monte & Brian Questa, USA. Patrick Monte (b.1989) is an American intermedia artist based in NYC and Berlin. Brian Questa (b.1988) is an American composer, media artist, and multi-instrumentalist based in Graz, Austria. Together, they have worked as a collaborative duo since 2012, producing installations, performances, and experimental music internationally. They have held artist residencies at Bridge Gallery in New York City (2012) and Liebig 12 in Berlin (2014). In 2014, their 12-channel sound work Circular Smells was featured during the presentation of Urban Solar Audio Plant for C60 Collaboratorium in Berlin. In 2018, their media artwork Anomy, for U.S. News received an “Official Jury Nomination” at the 21st Japan Media Arts Festival and was a feature installation for the 2018 International Computer Music Conference in Daegu, South Korea. In 2019, their media artwork Anomy, for U.S. and Mexican News premiered at Centro de Cultura Digital in Mexico City as part of Encuentro 2019.   xupstar.com