Search Queries - Portrait of America 2006

The intimate hunt.

There is no activity that reveals more about a culture and its topical and private interests than its internet searches.  Search queries reveal a staggering detail about a society’s intimate interests, phobias, medical conditions, cultural obsessions, shopping intentions, sexual predilections, religious, literary and media preferences.  Using over one million actual online searches from AOL in 2006 (that were mistakenly shared, then withdrawn when journalists pieced together the real identities of some of the searchers), I have constructed an artwork that both celebrates the astonishing breadth of America's searches and mourns some of the printed publications that search engines have replaced. 

Mixed media: wooden shelves, printed publications, and an LED scroll display. 64 5/8” w x 20” h x 7 3/4” d. Edition of 5 plus 1 AP. 2021. $20,000