Changing Perceptions

This is Art!

The purpose of this blog is to document the changing perception of what is driving a car on a public street and how we participate unaware in meaningful transformation in our lives.

In the transformation of concepts is where I find the art. We, the citizens, are the participants in an event staged by the State. Our registered cars enter the City streets and create ordered paths that can be abstracted into maps of our existence. Normally, we are unaware of this map. We are just using the car as a tool to travel. Now our registered cars are weaving an abstract tapestry of guilt across the City streets. It is not that we the drivers are guilty, but the registered car is guilty.

It is the transformation that we participate in that I choose to document. Our vehicles are no longer just cars, but they are an abstract idea in movement.

How I became aware of the opportunity

In the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, traffic laws are now being enforced by traffic cameras. The Iowa legislature and the Iowa Supreme Court have made way for traffic cameras. At the same time, the traffic violation citations are civil and not criminal. No longer does the State need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that YOU the citizen broke the law. Now it just needs to show that a car registered to you has violated an ordinance, a concept that appears to be counter to the 4th, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and the Presumption of Innocence affirmed by the Supreme Court in Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432 (1895).

It has been argued by one of the Iowa Legislators that sat on the committee that helped pass the traffic camera legislation that you are not at risk if you don't speed or don't run red lights. Yet, he ignored how he participated in the transformation of law.

Now we can all see how we are active transformers in perception and reality.