Document
Introduction
Ben Rubin is an artist who often creates artworks that isolate text from its original source. His previous works have presented text from Internet chat rooms (Listening Post, 2004) or from current and past issues of the New York Times (Moveable Type, 2007).
This piece combines text from current news broadcasts with older segments by Walter Cronkite for the CBS Evening News. Rubin’s software scans the text for patterns in speech and grammar and selects pieces to project, creating a conversation between past and present.
Questions
Can you tell which headlines are from today and which are from the Cronkite archives? How do you know?
What patterns do you see in the headlines projected?
Activity
Take a look at the headlines of a newspaper from today. Then look at the headlines from a thirty- to fifty-year-old newspaper. What patterns do you see? What has changed and what has stayed the same? Create a collage from the headlines highlighting the patterns you see.
Source for newspaper archives: http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/TDNP/browse/
BTW
Ben Rubin studied semiotics (the study of signs or symbols) and computer science in college.
Vocabulary
Collage—A work of art created by pasting various materials onto a surface
Pattern —A collection of recurring events or objects
Semiotics —The study of signs and symbols