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There's this quote by activist and punk[br]rock musician Jello Biafra that I love.

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He says, "Don't hate the media.[br]Be the media."

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I'm an artist.

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I like working with media and technology[br]because A, I'm familiar with them

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and I like the power they hold.

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And B, I hate them and I'm terrified[br]of the power they hold.

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(Laughter)

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I remember watching, in 2003, an interview[br]between Fox News host Tony Snow

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and then-US Defense Secretary,[br]Donald Rumsfeld.

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They were talking[br]about the recent invasion of Iraq,

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and Rumsfeld is asked the question,

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"Well, we're hear about our body counts,

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but we never hear about theirs, why?"

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And Rumsfeld's answer is,

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"Well, we don't do body counts[br]on other people."

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Right?

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It's estimated that between 150,000[br]to one million Iraqis, civilians,

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have died as a result[br]of the US-led invasion in 2003.

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That number is in stark contrast with[br]the 4,486 US service members who died

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during that same window of time.

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I wanted to do more than just bring[br]awareness to this terrifying number.

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I wanted to create a monument[br]for the individual civilians

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who died as a result of the invasion.

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Monuments to war,[br]such as Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial,

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are often enormous in scale.

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Very powerful and very one-sided.

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I wanted my monument to live[br]in the world, and to circulate.

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I remember when I was a boy in school,

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my teacher assigned us[br]this classic civics assignment

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where you take a sheet of paper[br]and you write a member of your government.

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And we were told,[br]if we wrote a really good letter,

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if we really thought about it,

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we would get back more than just[br]a simple formed letter as a reply.

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This is my "Notepad."

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What looks like an everyday,[br]yellow legal tablet of paper

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is actually a monument[br]to the individual Iraqi civilians

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that died as a result of the US invasion.

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"Notepad" is an act of protest[br]and an act of commemoration

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disguised as an everyday tablet of paper.

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The lines of the paper, when magnified,

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are revealed to be micro-printed text

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that contains the details, the names,[br]the dates and locations

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of individual Iraqi civilians that died.

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So, for the last 5 years, I've been taking[br]pads of this paper, tons of this stuff,

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and smuggling it[br]into the stationery supplies

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of the United States[br]and the Coalition governments.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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I don't have to tell you guys this is not[br]the place to discuss how I did that.

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(Laughter)

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But also, I've been meeting one-on-one[br]with members and former members

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of the so-called Coalition of the Willing,[br]who assisted in the invasion.

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And so, whenever I can,[br]I meet with one of them,

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and I share the project with them.

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And last summer, I had the chance to meet

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with former United States Attorney General[br]and Torture Memo author, Alberto Gonzales.

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(Video) Matt Kenyon:[br]May I give this to you?

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This is a special legal tablet.

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It's actually part[br]of an ongoing art project.

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Alberto Gonzalez:[br]This is a special legal pad?

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MK: Yes. You won't believe me,

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but it's in the collection of the Museum[br]of Modern Art; I'm an artist.

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MK: And all of the lines[br]of the paper are actually --

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AG: Are they going to disappear?

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MK: No, they're micro-printed text

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that contains the names[br]of individual Iraqi civilians

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who have died since the invasion of Iraq.

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AG: Yeah. OK.

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AG: Thank you. MK: Thank you.

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(Laughter)

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The way he says "thank you"[br]really creeps me out.

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(Laughter)

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OK, so I'd like each of you[br]to look under your chairs.

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There's an envelope.

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And please open it.

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The paper you're holding in your hand

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contains the details of Iraqi civilians[br]that died as result of the invasion.

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I'd like you to use this paper[br]and write a member of government.

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You can help to smuggle[br]this civilian body count

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into government archives.

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Because every letter[br]that's sent in to the government,

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and this is all across[br]the world, of course --

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every letter that is sent in[br]is archived, filed and recorded.

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Together, we can put this in the mailboxes[br]and under the noses of people in power.

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Everything that's sent in

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eventually becomes part of the permanent[br]archive of our government,

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our shared historical record.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Tom Rielly: So, tell me Matt,

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how did this idea[br]come into your head, of "Notepad"?

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Matt Kenyon: I'd just finished a project

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that dealt with[br]the US Coalition side of the war

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and it was a black armband that was called[br]the "Improvised Empathetic Device"

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which accumulated, in real time,

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the names, ranks,[br]cause of death and location

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of US service members[br]who had died overseas,

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and each time the Department of Defense[br]or CENTCOM released their data,

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it would stab me in the arm.

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And so, I became aware[br]that there was a spectacle

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associated with our own people[br]who were dying overseas,

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but a disproportionate[br]amount of casualties

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were the civilian casualties.

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TR: Thank you so much.

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MK: Thank you.

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(Applause)