This website is an art project in response to information overload. Each day, 100 entries from the past 24 hours are randomly selected from an RSS feed, cut up, and recombined. This process—rooted in principles of process art—aims to transform diverse sources of published text and images into something new. Inspired by the Dada Poem method, the project generates daily constructions that both critique the source material and stand as unique artistic expressions.
This project serves as both an artistic experiment and a form of research. By sampling information published on the internet within a 24-hour period, it reinterprets the material through an automated “cut-up” process. The goal is to present this material in a way that fosters new connections and perspectives, offering something akin to a parody or satire of blogging and daily digital content. The resulting “Coblage” posts—named for their blend of collage and blog—highlight the absurdity, beauty, and chaos of the modern information landscape.
Copyright presents challenges for this project. The works on this site use brief excerpts of text and images submitted for syndication, often under unclear copyright terms. In cases where the result is clearly transformative—creating new meaning and expression by taking the material out of its original context—the works on this site are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY). This allows others to share or adapt them with proper attribution.
For elements that may not fully meet the transformative standard, the same copyright ambiguities inherent in the original material persist. Those wishing to reuse such content inherit the same risks as the original collagist. By balancing the principles of fair use with transparency, this project seeks to respect the complexities of copyright law while fostering creativity and openness.
Beyond the daily posts, individual images created through the coblage process are developed into stand-alone artworks for sale. These standalone artworks take the ephemeral collages of Coblage and reframe them as enduring pieces of art, allowing supporters to own a part of this evolving project.
Ultimately, the goal of this site is not to convey information but to offer a daily word-and-image sculpture—art made from the raw material of information itself. Visitors are invited to let these creations spark new connections in their minds and inspire fresh ideas. The hope is that these works provide a moment of reflection, surprise, or even amusement amidst the noise of daily digital life.
All content on this site is generated by an automated process, but moderation is done manually. If you find any material objectionable, please contact me via Twitter (or X, as it’s now called) or Mastodon with links to the text or image in question, and it will be removed. Similarly, if you are the author of a source feed and prefer not to have your content included, please get in touch to request removal from the RSS feed list.
This site is offered as an invitation to see the world differently, to find beauty in chaos, and to reflect on the intersections of information and creativity. Your engagement—whether exploring, sharing, or supporting these works—helps keep this project alive and ever-evolving.
This project makes use of several Free and Open Source software applications.
Currently the RSS reader software in use is called CommaFeed:
A Python script, along with some other techniques are used to create the cutup text:
Another technique, which is referred to by the author as the “Galactic Pot Healer” method, a step which translates text into other languages (Primarily Chinese) and then back to English, is done with this tool:
Obviously, for those that recognise it, the blog software in use here is WordPress:
The maintainer of this website would like to thank and credit the developers of the WordPress CLI script which makes keeping the software updated much easier:
The Linux distribution in use on the server which serves the site is Ubuntu. It’s what I use on the desktop as well.
Images are composited and otherwise manipulated using the ImageMagick program:
Occasionally, an image might be cropped or further enhanced using the Gimp:
More will be added to this page and to this website over time. Just like everything else, it is now and always will be a work in progress.