Crop Squares

by Dan Katz, photography by Jennifer Braun
Answer: BACKGROUND NOISE

Each of the fifteen boxes, starting from the upper right and moving around the U-shape so that the letters are facing upright, spells a sixteen-letter phrase cluing a single letter:

• Box 1: STANDSFORSECONDS (S)
• Box 2: ZETAORIONISCLASS (O)
• Box 3: AFIFTYROMANSTYLE (L)
• Box 4: ABOOKBYERLENDLOE (L)
• Box 5: KEVINONENTOURAGE (E)
• Box 6: OLLIESTONEBIOPIC (W)
• Box 7: MESUBJECTVERSION (I)
• Box 8: SHIRTTHATSCASUAL (T)
• Box 9: HESROCKYTHREESMR (T)
• Box 10: ITSAMORSEDOTTRIO (S)
• Box 11: FAILINGEXAMGRADE (F)
• Box 12: CHICAGOSRAILWAYS (L)
• Box 13: WATERYCIRQUESHOW (O)
• Box 14: WINFREYSMAGAZINE (O)
• Box 15: RACYBUTNOTRATEDX (R)

Sol LeWitt designed a terrazzo floor in Building 6C called Bars of Color Within Squares, which consists of fifteen large colored squares in the same formation as the fifteen letter squares. The "transmission" consists of cropped sixteenths of the boxes (from photos taken of the floor). Numbering the regions 1-4 in the first row, 5-8 in the second, and so forth, the excerpts are:

• Box 4, Square 2 - B
• Box 13, Square 2 - A
• Box 12, Square 1 - C
• Box 9, Square 7 - K
• Box 5, Square 15 - G
• Box 2, Square 6 - R
• Box 6, Square 8 - O
• Box 8, Square 14 - U
• Box 3, Square 11 - N
• Box 1, Square 5 - D
• Box 14, Square 3 - N
• Box 7, Square 15 - O
• Box 11, Square 3 - I
• Box 10, Square 8 - S
• Box 15, Square 14 - E

Taking the corresponding letters from the letter squares in the corresponding positions, ordered as in the staticky transmission, gives the answer BACKGROUND NOISE.