How You See It layers a single story as told by three different news stations (CBS 2, NBC 4 and ABC 7 in New York City). This layering has been created with the idea of "fugue" in mind; that is, a procedure of imitative counterpoint. What "How You See It" hopes to illuminate is how local news broadcasts, far from daring reporting or varied approaches has regressed to pantomiming, creating a cacophony of sound and images that are no different from one another. Our news media landscape normally described as three giants, is really one in disguise.

Background
What "How You See It" hopes to illuminate is how local news broadcasts, far from daring reporting or varied approaches has regressed to pantomiming, creating a cacophony of sound and images that are no different from one another. Our news media landscape normally described as three giants, is really one in disguise.

Audience
Any viewer of television and/or the nightly news broadcasts in their local area.

User Scenario
There are two interfaces involved in the installation of How You See It. The first is the ability of a user to manipulate the opacity of three news segments that have been pre-chosen so as to decide the relative importance of each. The second (on a separate screen) is an installation of of all pre-rendered videos through a web interface.

Implementation
The primary screen will consist of a large plasma connected to a laptop running max/msp/jitter. The laptop will connect to three slider on a "video mixing board" that will control the opacity of the videos on the screen. The secondary screen will run a web interface where users can select which pre-rendered video to watch.

Conclusion
I am continually amazed at how similar television can be, whether it is the news, sitcoms or other programming. The interesting part of watching television occurs when that de ja vu moment happens, where you think you you've already seen on a previous channel what you are currently watching. What "How You See It" hopes to capture is just that moment.