This project consists of two parts: the Secret’s Box and a virtual segment, the Secret’s Game.  Both segments ask the user to consider how the translation of private data can change in form. In context, meaning, and intent. 

The “Secret’s Box” is comprised of a wooded box the inside surface of which is layered with cut and pasted newspaper reports.  Viewers are asked to write a secret on a piece of paper.  After writing each participant is asked to cut each word apart (either individually or in phrases) to deconstruct the content. The fragments/keywords are deposited into the box. At this moment the fragments of text filter into the box joining the archive of participant’s collective secrets.   The viewer is able to peer inside of the box through the transparent cover but can only read at a distance the layered bits of information embedded in the box.

Online visitors to the Secret’s Game click on the type box and type a secret.  The text data is filtered and sorted via a java applet the information added to an archive. The words most frequently used float in larger circles than words used less often. Users drag and drop words to the three empty circles in the center of the screen creating a new word phrase. The newly recycled word phrase is fed into a live server generating a list of current associated links.