Josh Begley (artist)
Josh Begley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1984 (age 39–40) San Francisco, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Digital Art |
Josh Begley (born 1984) is an American internet artist. He is best known for creating an iPhone app to track every reported United States drone strike.[1]
In July 2012, Begley developed an iPhone application that would send a push notification every time there was a US drone strike in Pakistan, Yemen, or Somalia. Apple rejected the app three times,[2] calling its content "crude and objectionable".[3] Begley then created Dronestream, a Twitter account chronicling every reported US drone strike (since the first one in 2002),[4] for Douglas Rushkoff's Narrative Lab. It gained 16,000 followers in the first week.[5][6]
In June 2012, Begley and two other New York University graduate students, Mehan Jayasuriya and James Borda, received a cease and desist letter from Invisible Children for their Kony 2012 parody website, Kickstriker.[7][8]
In 2014, after five rejections, Apple accepted Begley's iPhone app.[9] It is now known as Metadata+.
A graduate of University of California, Berkeley and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Begley currently works at The Intercept with journalists Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald, and Laura Poitras.[10]
Art
Begley is represented by The Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco.[11]
Work
- "Dronestream", a Twitter account posting every reported United States drone strike[12]
- "Officer Involved", a photographic project on police violence, with an introduction by the novelist Teju Cole[13]
- "Prison Map", a site using aerial photography to provide a visual representation of the US prison system[14]
- "Redlining", an archive of redlining maps overlaid on California cities[15]
- "Kickstriker", a parody site purporting to crowdfund military interventions in global conflicts[16]
- "The Listserve", a listserv-like email list where one randomly selected list member per day can send an email the entire list[17]
- "Subject of the Dream", a collage of excerpts from the work of Toni Morrison[18]
- "Racebox", a website showing the race section of the United States Census through history[19]
- "Empire.is", an interactive map showing the location of known United States military installations around the world[20]
- "Profiling.is", a visual representation of the Associated Press's probe into the New York Police Department's post-9/11 Muslim surveillance program[21]
- "Archives + Absences", an iPhone app that notifies users every time the police kill someone in the United States[22]
References
- ^ "Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes". Wired.
- ^ "Apple Rejects App Tracking Drone Strikes". New York Times.
- ^ "Drone-Tracking App Gets No Traction From Apple". NPR.
- ^ "Student Tweets Entire History of US Drone Strikes". Mashable.
- ^ "Josh Begley Tweets Entire History of U.S. Drone Attacks". The Daily Beast.
- ^ "The NYU Student Tweeting Every Reported US Drone Strike Has Revealed A Disturbing Trend". Business Insider.
- ^ "Kickstarter of Doom: Hoax Site 'Funds' Torture Bus, Death Drones". Wired.
- ^ "'Kony 2012' Threatens Lawsuit Against Online Parody". Wired.
- ^ "After 5 Rejections, Apple Accepts App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes". Mashable.
- ^ "The Great SIM Heist: How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle". The Intercept.
- ^ "Robert Koch Gallery Artists".
- ^ "Dronestream".
- ^ "Officer Involved".
- ^ "Aerial Photos Expose the American Prison System's Staggering Scale". Wired.
- ^ "The Racist Housing Policy That Made Your Neighborhood". The Atlantic.
- ^ "Kickstriker".
- ^ "The Listserve".
- ^ "Subject of the Dream".
- ^ "Racebox".
- ^ "Empire.is".
- ^ "Profiling.is".
- ^ "This app will notify you every time the police kill someone in the U.S." Fusion.
External links
- Josh Begley's official website
- New York Magazine Interview with Josh Begley from January 2013.
- MSNBC Interview - Tracking US Drone Strikes with Tech from February 2013.