<nettime-ann> [ann] state of the union

[Brad Borevitz <brad@onetwothree.net>]

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PROJECT:        State of the Union
URL:            <http://stateoftheunion.onetwothree.net>
 
STATE OF THE UNION WEBSITE EXPLORES THE
DECLINE OF POLITICAL LANGUAGE 1790-2007
A Software Art Project by Brad Borevitz
 
The launch of Brad Borevitz's State of the Union website anticipates the
2007 State of the Union address scheduled to be delivered to Congress and
the American people by George W. Bush on January 23rd.
 
Lamenting the triumph of iconicity over rhetoricity, Borevitz describes the
gradual changes in political speech from argument to brand. The project asks
us to consider if evidence for this assertion exists in the language of the
State of the Union address which stands as a controlled sample of political
speech over the course of U.S. history.
 
State of the Union provides searchable access to the corpus of all the State
of the Union addresses from 1790 to 2007. Using visualization software, the
site allows a user to explore how specific words gain and lose prominence
over time, and to link to information on the historical context for their
use. State of the Union focuses on the relationship between individual
addresses as compared to the entire collection of addresses, highlighting
what is different about the selected document. From this information, users
are invited to try and understand the connection between politics and
language­between the state we are in, and the language which names it and
calls it into being.
 
Since the project's initial release in May of 2006 it has logged over 50,000
visits. State of the Union has been selected for inclusion in Rhizome's
ArtBase, and mentioned on numerous of websites and blogs from The Liberal
Progressive to The National Review.
 
Brad Borevitz is an artist whose work focuses on language, politics and
software. He has produced websites, videos, software applications, and
robots, all of which have at their core a deep commitment to understanding
the political and cultural implications of computer technology. He is
currently a participant in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent
Study Program. He holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of
California San Diego.
 
The State of the Union website can be visited at
<http://stateoftheunion.onetwothree.net>.


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