More like this, please

Steven Hirsch is a photographer who stands outside the New York City Courthouse and asks people coming out what they were on trial for. The answers are like watching a monster die in a strobe light.

Evan Munoz. I was in Stuyvesant apartment complex when these cops where harassing my girlfriend. They threw her against the wall and put her in cuffs and bruised her so I kicked one of the cops in the nuts three times and then spat in another another cops face and then they beat the shit out of me. Bloody and took me off to jail.

My name is Cori DeSilva. They said that I was in possession of stolen property, of a cell phone. So, you know. I bought it off a guy in the street for $10, and I went to return the phone, and got arrested for it. I called the person up, she said she wanted to meet me, I went to meet her, and she was a undercover officer, and they locked me up for it. Yeah, she called me first. She said "do you have my phone?" I said "yes, I have your phone." She said "how much did you pay for the phone?" I told her "ten dollars." She said "well, I'll give you double the amount for the phone back," and I agreed, and she wanted a place to meet, and we met, and it was undercover officers there, and they arrested me, locked me up for possession of stolen property.

I like the idea of an artist sitting outside each of America's institutional landfills -- schools, jails, social services, INS -- and just asking all the comers and goers what they're doing there. I want to see how many anecdotes it will take to capsize the USS Complacency.