Cheung’s New Order series consists of a range of disparate appropriated images that have been subjected to a technological glitching effect, amounting to a literal reordering of the information in a digital image file. Co-opting an open source algorithm, Cheung’s process generates tens of thousands of possible variants of the source images, each comprising a partial or total redistribution of the original pixels. Uprooted from their established frameworks, these images become perceptible as signifiers of soft power, capturing instances in which seemingly benign activities are co-opted to express concealed political agendas. Manifest Destiny is drawn from an iconic painting of the colonisation of the American West that became one of the most canonised images of the era. Cheung’s interest is in the artwork’s moral journey, from symbolising a new era of education, religious piety and civilisation at its point of inception, to embodying the blood-drenched narratives of colonialization and indigenous displacement in a contemporary context.