Echo Theohar

Living Document

2019

A generative text reinterpretation of the Patriot Act, Section 2703(c) (2) of title 18, that was received by Congress on October 24, 2001. The Patriot Act is a document of US legislation notable for its conflation with September 11, 2001 and its grievances against the right to privacy and mishandling of the metadata of US citizens.

This interpretation of the document uses Rita, a software toolkit for computational literature, and WordNet, a Lexical database for English. Nouns are replaced with synonyms to alter the phrasing of the document, but ultimately maintain the original meaning, similar to how the Patriot Act has been amended since its installation in the state.

Coded in Processing 3.

Excerpt of video documentation here.