Decon is short for decontamination (e.g. stripdown and washdown in response to anthrax scares, etc.), but the term “decon” is also a short form for “deconstruction” (literary criticism asserting multiple conflicting interpretations of philosophical, political or social implications rather than an author's intention). The author describes an anthrax ready mailroom exhibit that included mass casualty decontamination showers, which he built in the summer of 2001, based on a patent he filed in April 2000, to deconstruct the coming “war on terrorism” and the suspension of civil liberties and personal privacy that might follow in the wake of bioterror attacks.

EXISTech Corporation's computer networks, control systems and image-sensor technology facilitate hygienic touchless control of plumbing fixtures. Two of EXISTech's sensors are described here in detail: an active infrared faucet sensor and a passive infrared autoflush sensor. These devices allow internetworked plumbing systems to help facility managers and law-enforcement personnel remotely monitor the operation of bathroom fixtures. Intelligent fixtures and systems based on quantimetric sensing technology enhance the privacy of law-abiding users by eliminating the need for invasive policing of restrooms. New computer-vision algorithms also automatically detect accidents, as well as vandalism and contraband disposal, to assist remote monitoring by law enforcement.

The author presents “Existential Technology” as a new category of in(ter)ventions and as a new theoretical framework for understanding privacy and identity. His thesis is twofold: (1) The unprotected individual has lost ground to invasive surveillance technologies and complex global organizations that undermine the humanistic property of the individual; (2) A way for the individual to be free and collegially assertive in such a world is to be “bound to freedom” by an articulably external force. To that end, the author explores empowerment via self-demotion. He has founded a federally incorporated company and appointed himself to a low enough position to be bound to freedom within that company. His performances and in(ter)ventions over the last 30 years have led him to an understanding of such concepts as individual self-corporatization and submissivity reciprocity for the creation of a balance of bureaucracy.