Artist Lecture: Trevor Paglen
Tuesday April 5th, 2011
Questions:
1. I love the way you don't just call yourself an artist or a photographer, but you also refer to yourself as a social scientist, a geographer, and a provocateur. Do you feel this way and market yourself this way for a certain reason?
2. What is your attraction to painting with light and creating abstractions from cityscapes?
Favorite Quotes from the Lecture:
"How do we try to know something that is designed to be unknowable? How do we see things that are designed to be invisible?"
"If we want to try to see invisible things, we have to be like astronomers."
"If you want to build an invisible airplane, you can not employ ghosts to work in your factory."
Three Words:
Secrecy
Contradictions
Paranoia
Honestly, this lecture was just weird. I have looked at Paglen's work before and from reading his descriptions and reviews have always enjoyed it, but after hearing him speak today, I certainly have a different take on his work. He began his lecture with saying, "Today I want to talk to you specifically about state secrecy." He went on to talk about tracing "nonsensical" names with "billions of dollars attached to them" and following where the money goes to expose undercover areas and operations. The talk itself was interesting, but the art shown wasn't work, in my opinion, of a creative mind, but rather evidence collected and displayed by a geographer and researcher. He talked to us about setting up "front companies" and the military patches with insignias for secret organizations. Again, the lecture was interesting and I'm glad I got to hear him speak, but I don't think I was inspired to make creative work after this, my head was just confused.
Favorite Quotes from the Lecture:
"How do we try to know something that is designed to be unknowable? How do we see things that are designed to be invisible?"
"If we want to try to see invisible things, we have to be like astronomers."
"If you want to build an invisible airplane, you can not employ ghosts to work in your factory."
Three Words:
Secrecy
Contradictions
Paranoia
Honestly, this lecture was just weird. I have looked at Paglen's work before and from reading his descriptions and reviews have always enjoyed it, but after hearing him speak today, I certainly have a different take on his work. He began his lecture with saying, "Today I want to talk to you specifically about state secrecy." He went on to talk about tracing "nonsensical" names with "billions of dollars attached to them" and following where the money goes to expose undercover areas and operations. The talk itself was interesting, but the art shown wasn't work, in my opinion, of a creative mind, but rather evidence collected and displayed by a geographer and researcher. He talked to us about setting up "front companies" and the military patches with insignias for secret organizations. Again, the lecture was interesting and I'm glad I got to hear him speak, but I don't think I was inspired to make creative work after this, my head was just confused.
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