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Trevor Paglen

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Trevor Paglen
Born1974
Alma materSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago;
University of California at Berkeley

Trevor Paglen (1974) is an American artist, geographer, and author whose work tackles mass surveillance and data collection.[1][2]

Sean O'Hagan, writing in The Guardian, said that Paglen, whose "ongoing grand project [is] the murky world of global state surveillance and the ethics of drone warfare", is one of the most conceptually adventurous political artists working today, and has collaborated with scientists and human rights activists on his always ambitious multimedia projects."[2]

Life and work

Paglen holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a PhD in geography from the University of California at Berkeley, where he currently works as a researcher.

Paglen has published a number of books. Torture Taxi (2006), (co-authored with investigative journalist Adam Clay Thompson) was the first book to comprehensively describe the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me (2007), is a look at the world of black projects through unit patches and memorabilia created for top-secret programs.[3] Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World (2009) is a broader look at secrecy in the United States.[4] The Last Pictures (2012) is a collection of 100 images to be placed on permanent media and launched into space on EchoStar XVI, as a repository available for future civilizations (alien or human) to find.[5]

Sean O'Hagan, writing in The Guardian, said that Paglen, whose "ongoing grand project [is] the murky world of global state surveillance and the ethics of drone warfare", is one of the most conceptually adventurous political artists working today, and has collaborated with scientists and human rights activists on his always ambitious multimedia projects."[2] His visual work such as his "Limit Telephotography" and "The Other Night Sky" series has received widespread attention for both his technical innovations and for his conceptual project that involves simultaneously making and negating documentary-style truth-claims.[6]

He was an Eyebeam Commissioned Artist in 2007. In 2015 he was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, along with Erik Kessels, Laura El-Tantawy, and Tobias Zielony.[2]

Publications

Publications by Paglen

  • I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing. 2007. ISBN 1-933633-32-8.
  • Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World. New York: Dutton. 2009. ISBN 9781101011492.
  • Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes, Photographs by Trevor Paglen. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2010. ISBN 9781597111300. with an essay by Rebecca Solnit.
  • The Last Pictures. University of California Press. 2012. ISBN 9780520275003.

Publications paired with others

Publications with contributions by Paglen

  • Experimental Geography - Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography, and Urbanism. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2009. ISBN 978-0091636586. Edited by Nato Thompson. With essays by Paglen, Thompson, and Jeffrey Kastner.
  • Trevor Paglen and Jacob Appelbaum - Autonomy Cube. Revolver, 2016. ISBN 978-3957633026. Essays by Luke Skrebowski and Keller Easterling on Autonomy Cube, a piece of sculpture by Paglen and Jacob Appelbaum. In English and German.

Exhibitions (selected)

Paglen has shown photography and other visual works.

Experimental Geography

Paglen is credited with coining the term "Experimental Geography" to describe practices coupling experimental cultural production and art-making with ideas from critical human geography about the production of space, materialism, and praxis. The 2009 book Experimental Geography: Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography, and Urbanism is largely inspired by Paglen's work.[13]

Works

Further reading

  • Nato Thompson (ed). Experimental Geography: Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography, and Urbanism (Melville House Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-0-09-163658-6
  • Perini, Julie (2010). "Art as Intervention: A Guide to Today's Radical Art Practices". In Team Colors Collective (ed.). Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States. AK Press. ISBN 9781849350167.

References

  1. ^ Gamerman, Ellen (12 September 2013). "The Fine Art of Spying". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e O'Hagan, Sean (5 November 2015). "Deutsche Börse photography prize shortlist: drones v the women of Tahrir". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  3. ^ Logos offer a guide to secret military programs, International Herald Tribune, April 2, 2008.
  4. ^ Paglen, Trevor "Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World" New York: Dutton, 2009
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ Keenan, Tom. "Disappearances: The Photographs of Trevor Paglen" Aperture, No. 191. Summer 2008
  7. ^ Trevor Paglen show at Bellwether Gallery in 2006
  8. ^ Trevor Paglen show at Lighthouse in 2012
  9. ^ http://www.altmansiegel.com/exhibitions/trevor-paglen-3/
  10. ^ http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/mar/13/trevor-paglen-art-review-nsa-surveillance-systems
  11. ^ http://www.edith-russ-haus.de/no_cache/en/exhibitions/exhibitions/archive.html?tx_kdvzerhapplications_pi4[exhibition]=198&tx_kdvzerhapplications_pi4[action]=show&tx_kdvzerhapplications_pi4[controller]=Exhibition
  12. ^ http://www.wired.com/2016/04/sculpture-lets-museums-amplify-tors-anonymity-network/
  13. ^ Nato Thompson interview in The Nation
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