A study of Reclassification
installation
2022 Bremen, Germany.
The work reflects on the relationship between classification and declassification. Originally classified as secret, the document was eventually declassified and made publicly accessible online. Once released, it became part of the vast body of information available to be processed, analysed, and transformed by AI.
By feeding this declassified document back into an AI system, I was interested in creating a loop between secrecy, disclosure, classification, and reclassification. Information that was once controlled by an institution becomes public data, and is then classified and rewritten again by a machine
(of course I got some issues on the making of the text because the AI has restrictions for the explicit content.)
In 1954, during the CIA’s Operation PBSUCCESS to overthrow Guatemala’s elected government, operatives were trained using this classified guide. Declassified decades later, this manual and other CIA covert warfare documents influenced military regimes and civil conflicts across Latin America, contributing to widespread repression and thousands of deaths.