Code Names of the Surveillance State

I think of this endlessly scrolling video installation – composed from more than 4,000 National Security Agency (NSA) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) surveillance program code names – as a kind of found poem crafted from the deliberately nonsensical names used for NSA surveillance programs.

Code Names of the Surveillance State, 2015
Video still
Three channel video: HD video installation on three monitors, no sound
121 ½ × 23 × 1 ¼ in.
Loop

The project was first presented to coincide with the opening of Citizenfour (2014), Laura Poitras’ documentary on Edward Snowden and the NSA, where it was projected onto various buildings in London, including Parliament.

Code Names of the Surveillance State, 2014
Projected on the British Parliament building, London, 2014