Phishing At The River Of News
2009 - CRT computer screens, multiple video splitters, computer, custom software

"Phishing At The River Of News" is a multiscreen installation consisting of a variable number of old computer screens, two custom softwares and a database. One software constantly visits the front pages [1] of one of 9000+ news portals from all over the world. It lifts [2] all animated ad banners from these pages and stores them into a temporary basin. The second software, a customized browser, reads one banner at a time from the basin and tiles it onto the array of screens resulting in one large animated and constantly changing pattern.

There is no way of predicting what banners come in as they are taken live from the net. The banners not only transport many different languages, they also depict all kinds of cultural or social events and seasons. Before xmass you would see more santas, after the haitian earthquake you did get a lot of calls for donations. If there's an election in one country it will surface as political advertisement.

Ad banners are made to catch attention. They often do so by being lound in terms of movement and color. As one banner at a time is displayed as a pattern this effect turns into the opposite. The carpet of colors and slightly asynchronous movement has a calming effect similar to that looking at flowing water or corn being moved by the wind.

[1] A page, in most cases the front- or overview page, that shows many fragments of news as they come in is called a "river of news".

[2] "Phishing" is a hacker technique where a fake website is set up to lure people into entering their username and password for a webservice like online banking. If a phisher would set out to copy a portal website like a free email service she/he had to copy the advertisement too to make it look real.