Keyword Intervention engages a universal quest for knowledge by displaying popular internet search phrases scraped1 from top search engines reports. The work currently has two manifestations: a self-perpetuating website that intervenes in internet user activity and a gallery installation that compiles live results into a mandala projection.

For the intervention display, the application reconfigures the keywords on my web page where it is indexed by the same search engines whose results I display, effectively drawing the traffic which made the results popular in the first place. Users searching for these words click on my website in the results where they encounter a message telling them that they are receiving an intervention. This manifestation acknowledges that the internet is a public space, and like the physical world, artists can enact dialogue through interventions in that space.

The method by which these words gain popularity has a relationship to historical searches; in quests for knowledge or enlightenment, pilgrimages, crusades for religious artifact, etc. The other manifestation reconfigures the search phrases into a starburst or mandala data visualization referencing the hypnotizing worship of popular content. Here the most popular result is found in the center, where, similar to the use of mandala, we are one with god.

Marketers insert themselves into the public space of the internet by using popular search engine terms (a.k.a. keywords2) to increase traffic, and ultimately sales to commercial websites. Marketing tactics such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO)3 help to intercept searches via these terms, creating desire for their products by inserting themselves into this interaction. Like my other work, this work coopts advertising strategies to cultivate critical reflection.

Both manifestations operate in real time, harvesting popular search terms from search engines, displaying them in some form. My intention is to use public space and publicly available information and methods to construct a place of dialog or reconsideration examining this search for truth.

The live intervention can be viewed here http://owenmundy.com/work/keyword_intervention/