<META> was part of SiteProjectsDC, an exhibition of site-specific contemporary art for public places, on view in Washington, DC from June 17 through September 25, 1999. The work took the form of an audio/visual Internet newspaper vending rack, one in a long line of "traditional" vending racks at the corner of F and 13th Streets NW in downtown Washington. The busy installation site was located in the business district, immediately adjacent to the National Press Building and a shopping mall. Pedestrians were alerted to the presence of the art work through a series of blurted computer alert sound effects, Morse code signals, and bird songs. As a viewer approached the bright yellow news vending rack they noticed a constantly cycling series of images downloading on a computer monitor. The computer browsed through newspaper "mastheads" downloaded from throughout the world, displaying over 230 mastheads gathered from Algeria to Zimbabwe

The great range and diversity of virtual newspapers published on the Internet was represented in <META>, and that gathering of electronic publications was contrasted to the dozen or so news editions lined up on the street corner. The art site was chosen for its proximity to the National Press Club, a focal point for people working in print and electronic journalism. The city of Washington was also considered as a locus of media power, and as a multi-lingual, multi-cultural center. <META> thus spoke to the diversity represented in the "virtual" on-line world, and to the "real world" of the streets and sidewalks.

The title "<META>" was derived from a command in HTML - Hyper Text Mark-up Language, the backbone programming language of the Internet. "Meta" may also be interpreted through its original derivation as a prefix meaning: sharing, higher, an action in common, pursuit or quest; and especially as: a change of place, order, condition or nature.

An epochal change recognized and predicted by Marshall McLuhan has taken place in journalism and publishing. The Internet has revolutionized the dissemination of news, information, "urban myths," and gossip. Networks, corporations, and great publishing dynasties now share Internet bandwidth with publishers and individuals from throughout the world; from the "Addis Tribune" to the "Zimbabwe Mirror."