Invisible Influenced
a project in process for Turbulence.org

“Invisible Influenced” is a Rorschach test for envisioning the US as the recipient rather than the cause of worldwide events. Contrary to the notion of impervious superpower, the artwork projects the emerging public perception that the country is vulnerable to "foreign" conditions of climate, public opinion, economics and military strategy. Shape reads, in this case, as the confluence of intercontinental subconscious activity, which is in the process of becoming visible. The primary Flash site displays a simple map silhouette of the country with pull-down menus for a number of searchable real-time RSS feed sites. Users then select from foreign sources of News, weather conditions, health conditions, stock indexes, and blogs. Informational sources will be chosen for their seeming “distance” or “obscurity” from the US daily experience. Qualitative and quantitative indices found in the RSS texts are then translated programmatically into the position and strength of magnetic or repulsing forces surrounding the US map silhouette. The map then responds and distorts according to elastic physics properties programmed to its perimeter. Visitors will see this process happening as information is being translated as well as the text and pertinent information being retrieved. There will also be an auto function that causes the different sources to be chosen at random and on a continuing basis such that the map is constantly changing.