A MITH Digital Dialogue
Tuesday, October 26, 12:30-1:45
MITH Conference Room, McKeldin Library B0135
“Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project” by HASAN ELAHI
On Tuesday, October 26, artist Hasan Elahi will describe his experiences with FBI interrogation and his subsequent creative projects in his lecture, “Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project,” along with other recent works as part of MITH’s Digital Dialogues series. After an erroneous tip called into law enforcement authorities in 2002, Elahi was subjected to an intensive post 9-11 investigation by the FBI. After undergoing six months of interrogations and nine consecutive lie-detector tests, he was cleared of suspicions. After this harrowing experience, Elahi conceived “Tracking Transience” (http://trackingtransience.net), a self-tracking system that constantly and publicly presents his exact location, activities, and other personal data. This self-surveillance project is a critique of contemporary investigative techniques and provides an ongoing “alibi” for Elahi in the event of future accusations.
HASAN ELAHI is an interdisciplinary artist whose work examines issues of surveillance, simulated time, transport systems, borders and frontiers. His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions at venues such as SITE Santa Fe, Centre Georges Pompidou, Sundance Film Festival, Kassel Kulturbahnhof, and at the Venice Biennale. Elahi recently was invited to speak about his work at the Tate Modern, The Einstein Forum, and at at the American Association of Artificial Intelligence. His work has been supported with grants and sponsorships from the Creative Capital Foundation, Ford Foundation/Philip Morris, and the Asociación Artetik Berrikuntzara in Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Country/Spain. His work is frequently in the media and has been covered by The New York Times, Forbes, Wired, CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR, Al Jazeera, Fox, and has also appeared on The Colbert Report. In 2009, he was Resident Faculty and Nancy G. MacGrath Endowed Chair at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and is a 2010 Alpert/MacDowell fellow. Currently, he is Associate Professor of Art at University of Maryland.
View MITH’s complete Fall Speakers Schedule here:
http://mith.umd.edu/programs/mith_speakers_fall_2010.pdf
All talks free and open to the public!
Contact: Neil Fraistat, Director, MITH (http://mith.umd.edu, mith@umd.edu, 5-8927).