Trevor Paglen (born 1974) is an American artist, geographer, and author whose work tackles

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

and data collection. In 2016, Paglen won the

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize is a prize awarded annually by the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and The Photographers' Gallery to a photographer who has made the most significant contribution to the photographic medium i ...

and he has also won The Cultural Award from the

German Society for Photography German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

.The Cultural Award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie (DGPh)
. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie e.V.. Accessed 7 March 2017. In 2017, he was a recipient of a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...

Early life and education

Paglen earned a B.A. degree in religious studies in 1998 from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, a M.F.A. degree in 2002 from

the School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew ...

, and a Ph.D. in

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

in 2008 from the University of California at Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley, Paglen lived in the

Berkeley Student Cooperative The Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC) (formerly known as University Students' Cooperative Association or the USCA) is a student housing cooperative serving primarily UC Berkeley students, but open to any full-time post-secondary student. The BS ...

, residing in Chateau, Fenwick, and Rochdale co-ops.

Work

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and arranger who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and ...

, writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' in 2015, said that Paglen, whose "ongoing grand project sthe 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." His visual work such as his "Limit Telephotography" and "The Other Night Sky" series have received widespread attention for both his technical innovations and for his conceptual project that involves simultaneously making and negating documentary-style truth-claims. The contrasts between secrecy and revelation, evidence and abstraction distinguish Paglen's work. With that the artist presents not so much "evidence" as admonitions to awareness. He was an Eyebeam Commissioned Artist in 2007. In 2008 the Berkeley Art Museum devoted a comprehensive solo exhibition to his work. In the next year, Paglen took part in the

Istanbul Biennial The Istanbul Biennial is a contemporary art exhibition that has been held biennially in Istanbul, Turkey, since 1987. The Biennial has been organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) since its inception. Format Istanbul Bien ...

, and in 2010 he exhibited at the Vienna

Secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

. ''

Autonomy Cube The Autonomy Cube was an art project run by American artists and technologists Trevor Paglen and Jacob Appelbaum which places relays for the anonymous communication network Tor (anonymity network), Tor in traditional art museums. Both have previou ...

'' was a project by Paglen and

Jacob Appelbaum Jacob Appelbaum (born 1 April 1983) is an American independent journalist, computer security researcher, artist, and hacker. He studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology and was a core member of the Tor project, a free software network ...

which placed relays for the anonymous communication network

Tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia Sc ...

in traditional art museums. Paglen is featured in the nerd culture documentary, ''

Traceroute In computing, traceroute and tracert are computer network diagnostic commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The history of the route is recorded as th ...

'' (2016). '' Orbital Reflector'' was a reflective, mylar sculpture by Paglen intended to be the first "purely artistic" object in space. The temporary satellite, containing an inflatable mylar balloon with reflective surface, launched into space 3 December 2018. A mid-career survey in 2018–2019, ''Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen'', was a traveling exhibition shown at the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

in Washington DC and

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (or MCASD), in San Diego, California, US, is an art museum focused on the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art from 1950 to the present. Mission The stated mission of ...

. In September 2020, Pace Gallery in London held an exhibition of Trevor Paglen's work, exploring 'the weird, partial ways computers look back at us'. His work is included in the permanent collections of the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

Columbus Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...

, and

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

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.

Publications

Paglen has published a number of books. ''

Torture Taxi ''Torture Taxi'': ''On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights'' is a 2006 book by A. C. Thompson and Trevor Paglen documenting the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The authors note the discovery of the program's means of transportation, ...

'' (2006), (co-authored with investigative journalist A. C. Thompson) was the first book to comprehensively describe the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored Kidnapping, forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had t ...

program. ''I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me'' (2007), is a look at the world of

black project A black project is a highly classified, top-secret military or defense project that is not publicly acknowledged by government, military personnel, or contractors. Examples of United States military aircraft developed as black projects include the ...

s through unit patches and memorabilia created for top-secret programs. ''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. ''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.

Publications by Paglen

*''I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me.'' Brooklyn, NY:

Melville House Melville House is a 1697 house that lies to the south side of the Palace of Monimail near Collessie in Fife, Scotland. It has been a school and a training base for Polish soldiers who had arrived in Scotland after the 51st Highland Division ...

, 2007. . *''Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World.'' New York: Dutton, 2009. . *''Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes, Photographs by Trevor Paglen''. New York:

Aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

, 2010. . With an essay by Rebecca Solnit. *''The Last Pictures.'' Oakland, CA:

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, 2012. . * ''Trevor Paglen''. London: Phaidon, 2018. . With essays by Laren Cornell, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Omar Kholeif.

Publications co-authored

*''

.'' Co-authored with A. C. Thompson. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2006. . **Icon, 2007. .

Publications with contributions by Paglen

*''Experimental Geography - Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography, and Urbanism.'' Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2009. . Edited by Nato Thompson. With essays by Paglen, Thompson, and Jeffrey Kastner. *''Trevor Paglen and Jacob Appelbaum - Autonomy Cube.'' Revolver, 2016. . Essays by Luke Skrebowski and

Keller Easterling Keller Easterling is an American architect, urbanist, writer, and professor. She is Enid Storm Dwyer Professor and Director of the MED Program at Yale University. Biography She earned both her B.A. and M.Arch from Princeton University School of ...

on ''

'', a piece of sculpture by Paglen and

. In English and German.

Exhibitions

Paglen has shown photography and other visual works. *

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ar ...

, North Adams, Massachusetts * Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art, Medzilaborce, Slovakia *

, San Francisco, CA *

Bellwether Gallery Bellwether Gallery was a New York City art gallery based in Chelsea. Director and owner Becky Smith was recognized as an important promoter of emerging artists since the gallery's 1999 opening in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.Genocchio, ...

, New York, November–December 2006 *''The Other Night Sky'', Berkeley Art Museum, 2008 *''A Compendium of Secrets'', Cologne *''Still Revolution: Suspended in Time,''

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA), formerly known as the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), is a museum and art gallery in Toronto, Ontario. It is an independent, registered charitable organization. ...

, Toronto, May–June 2009. Group exhibition with Paglen,

Barbara Astman Barbara Astman RCA is a Canadian artist who specializes in a hybrid of photography and new media, often using her own body as object and subject, merging art and technology. Early life Astman was born in Rochester, New York, the second of three ...

Walead Beshty Walead Beshty (born London, UK, 1976) is a Los Angeles-based artist and writer. Beshty was an associate professor in the Graduate Art Department at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and has taught at numerous schools including University of ...

Mat Collishaw Matthew "Mat" Collishaw Hon. FRPS (born 6 January 1966) is an English artist based in London. Collishaw's work uses photography and video. His best known work is ''Bullet Hole'' (1988), which is a closeup photo of what appears to be a bull ...

, Stan Douglas,

Idris Khan Idris Khan OBE (born 1978) is a British artist based in London.Biography
Victoria Miro Gallery Khan's ...

Martha Rosler Martha Rosler (born 1943) is an American artist. She is a conceptual artist who works in photography and photo text, video, installation, sculpture, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture. Rosler's work is centered on everyday ...

, and

Mikhael Subotzky Mikhael Subotzky (born Cape Town, South Africa, 1981) is a South African artist based in Johannesburg. His installation, film, video and photographic work have been exhibited widely in museums and galleries, and received awards including the KLM ...

*''A Hidden Landscape'', Aksioma, Ljubljana, Slowenia *''Geographies of Seeing,'' Lighthouse, Brighton, England, October–November 2012 *''The Last Pictures'', New York, 2012–13 *''Trevor Paglen,'' Altman Siegel gallery, San Francisco, CA, March–May 2015 *''The Octopus'',

Frankfurter Kunstverein The Frankfurt Art Association (german: link=no, Frankfurter Kunstverein) is an art museum founded in 1829 by a group of influential citizens of the city of Frankfurt, Germany. The aim of the institution is to support the arts in the city, which w ...

, Frankfurt am Main, 2015 *''Autonomy Cube,'' Edith-Russ-Haus, Oldenburg, Germany, October 2015 – January 2016. Sculpture by Paglen and

. *''Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2016,''

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established i ...

, London, April–July 2016.

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize Deutsch or Deutsche may refer to: *''Deutsch'' or ''(das) Deutsche'': the German language, in Germany and other places *''Deutsche'': Germans, as a weak masculine, feminine or plural demonym *Deutsch (word), originally referring to the Germanic ve ...

shortlist with Paglen,

Erik Kessels Erik Kessels (1966) is a Dutch artist, designer and curator with a particular interest in photography, and co-founder of KesselsKramer, an advertising agency in Amsterdam. Kessels and Johan Kramer established the "legendary and unorthodox" Kessels ...

, Laura El-Tantawy, and

Tobias Zielony Tobias Zielony (born 1973) is a German photographer and short filmmaker, living in Berlin. He has made work about communities at the margins of society, such as young people. In 2015, Zielony's series on African refugees in Germany, ''the Citizen' ...

. * ''Radical Landscapes'', di Rosa, Napa, February–April 2016 * ''L’Image volée'', ''Americas II, Bahamas Internet Cable System (BICS-1)'' and ''Globenet'',

Fondazione Prada Fondazione Prada, co-chaired by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli since 1995, is an institution dedicated to contemporary art and culture. From 1993 to 2010, the Fondazione has organised 24 solo shows at its exhibition spaces in Milan, conceiv ...

, Milan (group exhibition), 2016 * ''A Study of Invisible Images'', Metro Pictures, New York, September–October 2017

Awards

*2014: Pioneer Award from the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

. *2015: The Cultural Award from the

(DGPh) *2015: Academy Award as cameraman and director for the documentary film ''Citzenfour''. *2016:

*2017:

, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, IL *2018: Nam June Paik Art Center Prize

Films about Paglen

*'' Unseen Skies'' (2021)

Works

File:National Security Agency, 2013.jpg, Headquarters of the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

on Fort Meade,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

File:National Reconnaissance Office, 2013.jpg, Headquarters of the

National Reconnaissance Office The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. f ...

Chantilly Chantilly may refer to: Places France *Chantilly, Oise, a city located in the Oise department **US Chantilly, a football club *Château de Chantilly, a historic château located in the town of Chantilly United States * Chantilly, Missou ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

File:National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 2013.jpg, Headquarters of the

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national ...

in Springfield, Virginia

References

External links

*
April 2009 interview with Trevor Paglen

Trevor Paglen's appearance on the Colbert Report
from April 7. 2008.
Trevor Paglen and Jacob Appelbaum
''

Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Paglen, Trevor MacArthur Fellows 1974 births Living people American conceptual artists American geographers American non-fiction writers American photographers Artificial intelligence art Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni