Laurie McKenna
Press Badge - a work in progress
Drawings, assemblage, QR code interactivity, video.
Honoring the first amendment, and in particular, the freedom of the press.
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of the truth upon them.”
Ida B Wells
Using the U.S.Press Freedom Tracker, an online database which tracks abuse against journalists, this project transforms data into a mixed media installation honoring the journalists working in the US in the time frame of May 2020 to January 6, 2021. Collaboration with David Huerta made the QR codes possible. A database of over 1000 incidents are now logged with corresponding QR codes. Each badge drawn has a corresponding code.
Press Badge is supported and made possible with funding from the Bisbee Arts Commission, the Arts Foundation of Tucson and Southern Arizona Creosote StART to Heal Grant, and an award/ mini-grant from the Confluence Center of Creative Inquiry, as part of the Fronteritades program at the University of Arizona, which was supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation.
2026: Press Badge is an ongoing project. Badges are being made to capture the ongoing attacks on journalists covering the war in Gaza and coverage of the criminal behavior of ICE.
