The Reading Room was a response to a number of themes that are prevalent in our current political environment, including surveillance, censorship, cataloging and categorization, the surrender of constitutional rights, and the concept of acceptable patriotism.

In The Reading Room, one portion of the piece relied upon the visitor interaction with the work classifying information to highlight that associations are completely dependent upon the individual doing the classification.

We, as a public, are influenced by propaganda, and the bombardment of the propaganda seems especially effective. Political talking points quickly become integrated into daily language; definitions become manipulated and weighted, all allowing for radical shifts and concepts to be accepted without challenge.