There's this quote by activist and punk rock musician Jello Biafra that I love. He says, "Don't hate the media. Be the media." I'm an artist. I like working with media and technology because A, I'm familiar with them and I like the power they hold. And B, I hate them and I'm terrified of the power they hold.
Postoji jedan citat aktivista i punk rock glazbenika Jella Biafre koji volim. On kaže: "Nemojte mrziti medije. Budite mediji." Ja sam umjetnik. Volim raditi s medijima i tehnologijom jer, pod prvo, dobro su mi poznati i volim moć koju posjeduju. I pod drugo, mrzim ih i užasavam se moći koju posjeduju.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I remember watching, in 2003, an interview between Fox News host Tony Snow and then-US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. They were talking about the recent invasion of Iraq, and Rumsfeld is asked the question, "Well, we're hear about our body counts, but we never hear about theirs, why?" And Rumsfeld's answer is, "Well, we don't do body counts on other people." Right?
Sjećam se kako sam 2003.-e gledao intervju voditelja Fox News-a Tonyja Snowa s tadašnjim američkim ministrom obrane Donaldom Rumsfeldom. Razgovorali su o nedavnoj invaziji na Irak i Rumsfeldu je postavljeno pitanje: "Čujemo o broju naših žrtava, ali nikad ne čujemo o broju njihovih, zašto?" A Rumsfeld je odgovorio: "Pa, mi ne preobrajavamo tuđe žrtve." Jelda?
It's estimated that between 150,000 to one million Iraqis, civilians, have died as a result of the US-led invasion in 2003. That number is in stark contrast with the 4,486 US service members who died during that same window of time. I wanted to do more than just bring awareness to this terrifying number. I wanted to create a monument for the individual civilians who died as a result of the invasion.
Procijenjuje se da je izmežu 150,000 i milijun Iračana, civila, poginulo u američkoj invaziji 2003. Taj je broj u potpunom kontrastu s 4,486 američkih poginulih vojnika u istom razdoblju. Htio sam napraviti više od samog osviješćivanja ovih zastrašujućih brojki. Htio sam stvoriti spomenik civilima koji su poginuli tijekom invazije.
Monuments to war, such as Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial, are often enormous in scale. Very powerful and very one-sided. I wanted my monument to live in the world, and to circulate. I remember when I was a boy in school, my teacher assigned us this classic civics assignment where you take a sheet of paper and you write a member of your government. And we were told, if we wrote a really good letter, if we really thought about it, we would get back more than just a simple formed letter as a reply.
Ratni spomenici, npr.Spomenik vijetnamskim ratnim veternima Maye Lin, često su ogromni. Veoma moćni i veoma jednostrani. Ja sam želio spomenik koji će živjeti u svijetu i kružiti. Sjećam se da nam je, kad sam bio školarac, profesorica dala klasičan građanski zadatak, u kojem uzmete list papira i pišete članu svoje vlade. I rečeno nam je, napišemo li zaista dobro pismo, i ako dobro razmislimo o tome, da ćemo dobili više od jednostavno formuliranog pisma kao odgovor.
This is my "Notepad." What looks like an everyday, yellow legal tablet of paper is actually a monument to the individual Iraqi civilians that died as a result of the US invasion. "Notepad" is an act of protest and an act of commemoration disguised as an everyday tablet of paper. The lines of the paper, when magnified, are revealed to be micro-printed text that contains the details, the names, the dates and locations of individual Iraqi civilians that died.
Ovo je moja "bilježnica". Ono što izgledao kao svakidašnja, žuta, legalna skupina papira je zapravo spomenik iračkim civilima koji su poginuli u američkoj invaziji. "Bilježnica" je čin pobune i čin komemoracije, prerušen u svakidašnji skup papira. Crte papira, kad se pogledaju pod povećalom, su mikro-tiskan tekst koji sadrži detalje, imena, datume i mjesta iračkih civila koji su poginuli.
So, for the last 5 years, I've been taking pads of this paper, tons of this stuff, and smuggling it into the stationery supplies of the United States and the Coalition governments.
Dakle, posljednjih 5 godina, nosim ove listove papira, tone tih stvari, i krijumčarim ih u zalihe papira SAD-a i Koalicijskih vlada.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
I don't have to tell you guys this is not the place to discuss how I did that.
Ne moram vam reći da ovo nije mjesto na kojem vam mogu reći kako sam uspio.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
But also, I've been meeting one-on-one with members and former members of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, who assisted in the invasion.
Ali isto tako, susrećem se s članovima i bivšim članovima tzv. Koalicije koja je pomogla u invaziji.
And so, whenever I can, I meet with one of them, and I share the project with them. And last summer, I had the chance to meet with former United States Attorney General and Torture Memo author, Alberto Gonzales.
I kad god mogu, susretnem se s nekim od njih te s njima podijelim projekt. Prošlog sam ljeta imao priliku upoznati bivšeg američkog pravobranitelja i autora memoranduma "Tortura", Alberta Gonzalesa.
(Video) Matt Kenyon: May I give this to you? This is a special legal tablet. It's actually part of an ongoing art project.
Mogu li Vam dati ovo? Ovo je posebna legalna ploča. Zapravo je dio umjetničkog projekta u nastanku.
Alberto Gonzalez: This is a special legal pad?
Ovo je posebna legalna ploča?
MK: Yes. You won't believe me, but it's in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art; I'm an artist.
Da. Nećete mi vjerovati, ali je u kolekciji Muzeja moderne umjetnosti; ja sam umjetnik.
MK: And all of the lines of the paper are actually --
I sve crte na papiru su zapravo-
AG: Are they going to disappear?
Hoće li nestati?
MK: No, they're micro-printed text that contains the names of individual Iraqi civilians who have died since the invasion of Iraq.
Ne, to je mikro-tiskani tekst koji sadrži imena iračkih civila koji su poginuli u invaziji na Irak.
AG: Yeah. OK.
Dobro, OK.
AG: Thank you. MK: Thank you.
Hvala. Hvala vama.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
The way he says "thank you" really creeps me out.
Način na koji kaže "hvala" me stvarno uzašava.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
OK, so I'd like each of you to look under your chairs. There's an envelope. And please open it. The paper you're holding in your hand contains the details of Iraqi civilians that died as result of the invasion. I'd like you to use this paper and write a member of government. You can help to smuggle this civilian body count into government archives. Because every letter that's sent in to the government, and this is all across the world, of course -- every letter that is sent in is archived, filed and recorded. Together, we can put this in the mailboxes and under the noses of people in power. Everything that's sent in eventually becomes part of the permanent archive of our government, our shared historical record.
OK, želim da svi pogledate pod svoje stolce. Tamo je kuverta. I molim vas, otvorite ju. Papir koji držite u rukama sadrži detalje o iračkim civilima koji su poginuli u invaziji. Želim da iskoristite taj papir i da pišete članu vlade. Možete pomoći u krijumčarenju broja poginulih u vladine arhive. Zato što svako pismo poslano vladi iz cijelog svijeta, naravno -- svako poslano pismo se arhvira, sačuva i zabilježi. Zajedno možemo ovo staviti u poštanske sandučiće i pod nos moćnicima. Sve što se pošalje postaje dijelom stalnog arhiva naše vlade, naš dijeljeni povijesni trag.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Tom Rielly: So, tell me Matt, how did this idea come into your head, of "Notepad"?
Reci mi Matt, kako ti je ta ideja pala na pamet?
Matt Kenyon: I'd just finished a project that dealt with the US Coalition side of the war and it was a black armband that was called the "Improvised Empathetic Device" which accumulated, in real time, the names, ranks, cause of death and location of US service members who had died overseas, and each time the Department of Defense or CENTCOM released their data, it would stab me in the arm. And so, I became aware that there was a spectacle associated with our own people who were dying overseas, but a disproportionate amount of casualties were the civilian casualties.
Netom sam dovršio projekt koji se bavio američkom koalicijskom stranom rata i to je bila crna traka za ruku nazvana "Improvizirani empatički uređaj" koji je prikupljala, u stvarnom vremenu, imena, pozicije, razloge i mjesta smrti američkih vojnika koji su poginuli u inozemstvu i svaki put kada bi Ministarstvo obrane ili CENTCOM otpustili svoje podatke, mene bi probolo u ruku. I tako sam postao svjestan prizora vezanog za naše ljude koji ginu u inozemstvu, ali neproporcionalna brojka žrtava su bili civili.
TR: Thank you so much.
Hvala Vam puno.
MK: Thank you.
Hvala vama.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)