There's a quote by activist and punk-rock musician Jello Biogra 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.
(Laughter)
I remember watching in 2003, an interview between Fox News host Tony Snow
and then-U.S. 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."
It's estimated that between 150,000 to one million Iraqis, civilans
have died as a result of the U.S. led invasion in 2003.
That number is in stark contrast with the 4,486 U.S. service members who died
during that same window of time.
I wanted to do more than just bring awareness to this terrifying number
and wanted to create a monument for the individual civilians who died
as a result of the invasion.
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, to circulate.
I remember when I was a boy in school, my teacher assigned us
this classic civics assignment where you write -- 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.
This is my notepad.
What looks like an everyday, legal tablet of paper, is actually a monument
to the individual Iraqi civilians that died as a result of the U.S. invasion.
Notepads in 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 contain the details, the names, the dates and locations of individual
Iraqi civilians that died.
So, for the last 5 years, I've been taking pads of this paper -- tons of this stuff
and smuggling it into the stationary supplies of the United States
and the coalition governments.
(Applause)
I don't have to tell you guys, this is not the place to discuss how I did that.
(Laughter)
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.
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.
"May I give this to you? This is a special legal tablet."
"This is actually part of an on-going art project."
"Is it a special legal pad?"
"Yes, and I know you won't believe me, but it's in the collection
of the Museum of Modern Art."
"I'm an artist."
"OK."
"And all of the lines of the paper --"
"Are they going to disappear?"
"No, they're micro-printed text that contain the names
of individual Iraqi civilians, who have died since the invasion of Iraq."
"Thank you."
(Laughter)
The way he says thank you really creeps me out.
(Laughter)
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 hands 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 smuggle this civilian body count into government archives.
Because every letter that's sent in to the government, and this is
all across the board 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.
Thank you.
(Applause)
So, tell me Matt, how did this idea come into your head, of notepad?
I had just finished a project that dealt with the U.S. coalition side of the war
and it was a black armband that was called the Empathetic Device which accumulated,
in realtime, the names, ranks, cause of death and location of U.S. service
members who had died overseas and each time the Department of Defense or Syncom
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 are dying overseas, but a disproportionate amount of casualties
were the civilian casualties.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.