benj gerdes

a portfolio not always in sync with internet time

Intelligence Failures: Licensed for Educational Use Video installation, 28:00 loop, 2003.

Intelligence Failures: Minutes 39-54 Single-channel video, 7:00, 2003.

Only the President of the United States can give a televised 60-minute speech that includes 28 minutes of silence and applause. By removing all the words, I sought to highlight this attribute of power in a way that might present all these gaps as the people’s chance to respond to an unresponsive, anti-democratic elected official. In an age where talk radio routinely runs programs through software to remove gaps in order to increase advertising revenue I re-envisioned this speech as a series of stutters and false starts met with overly enthusiastic applause. Namely, democracy as practiced in the United States.

Initial exhibition: New York Underground Film Festival, “American Visions and Revisions” Curated by Susanna Cole and Erin Donnelly at the Kunsthalle Exnergasse/WUK, Vienna, 2004.


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Intelligence Failures | 2003 | projects