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

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

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