Astro noise : a survival guide for living under total surveillance / Laura Poitras ; with an introduction by Jay Sanders and contributions by Ai Weiwei, Jacob Appelbaum, Lakhdar Boumedien, Kate Crawford, Alex Danchev, Cory Doctorow, Dave Eggers, Jill Magrid, Trevor Paglen, Edward Snowden, and Hito Steyerl

Object Details

artist

Poitras, Laura

writer of introduction

Sanders, Jay 1975-

writer of added text

Ai, Weiwei

publisher

Whitney Museum of American Art

Subject

Poitras, Laura

Published on the occasion of the the exhibition "Laura Poitras: Astro Noise, " curated by Jay Sanders at the Whitney Museum of American Art, February 5 - May 15, 2016.

Contents

Foreword / Adam D. Weinberg -- Introduction / Jay Sanders -- The adventure of the extraordinary rendition / Cory Doctorow -- We were the other / Lakhdar Boumediene -- Surveillance / Ai Weiwei -- Berlin journal / Laura Poitras -- Listening to the moons / Trevor Paglen -- Astro noise / Edward Snowden -- Circle democracy / Dave Eggers -- Asking the oracle / Kate Crawford -- Letter to a young selector / Jacob Appelbaum -- Medya: autonomy of images / Hito Steyerl -- Glossary / Jill Magid -- 18 USC 371 / Federal Bureau of Investigation -- Troublemakers: Laura Poitras and the problem of dissent / Alex Danchev -- Acknowledgments -- "Anarchist" image index

Summary

"Laura Poitras: Astro Noise" is the first solo museum exhibition by artist, filmmaker, and journalist Laura Poitras. This immersive installation of new work builds on topics important to Poitras, including mass surveillance, the war on terror, the U.S. drone program, Guantánamo Bay Prison, occupation, and torture. For the exhibition, Poitras is creating an interrelated series of installations in the Whitney's eighth-floor Hurst Family Galleries. The exhibition expands on her project to document post-9/11 America, engaging visitors in formats outside her non-fiction filmmaking. Instead she will create immersive environments that incorporate documentary footage, architectural interventions, primary documents, and narrative structures to invite visitors to interact with the material in strikingly intimate and direct ways. The title, "Astro Noise", refers to the faint background disturbance of thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang and is the name Edward Snowden gave to an encrypted file containing evidence of mass surveillance by the National security Agency that he shared with Poitras in 2013. The Snowden archive partially inspired Poitras's presentation at the Whitney. Whitney.org

2016

21st century

Type

Exhibitions

Physical description

241 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm

Place

United States

Title

Astro noise : a survival guide

Laura Poitras : astro noise

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Installations (Art)

Documentary films--History

Art--Political aspects--History

Electronic surveillance--History

Record ID

siris_sil_1060502

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0