Trevor Paglen Quotes

Trevor Paglen
Trevor Paglen
American Artist
Born: 1974
About Me People Think World You
Related authors: Andy Warhol Jackson Pollock Jean-Michel Basquiat Jeff Koons Kehinde Wiley Keith Haring Yoko Ono
When we look up into the starry night sky, we tend to see reflections of ourselves. Trevor Paglen
Sky Ourselves See Tend Look Up Reflections Starry Night
The Internet was supposed to be the greatest tool of global communications and means of sharing knowledge in human history. And it is. But it has also become the most effective instrument of mass surveillance and potentially one of the greatest instruments of totalitarianism in the history of the world. Trevor Paglen
Knowledge History World Internet Totalitarianism Become Tool Potentially Sharing Mass Supposed Global Most Also Instrument Instruments Greatest Effective Surveillance Human The History Of Communications Human History Means
I can't imagine anything more beautiful on this planet than looking up at the stars and seeing a kind of artificial star moving through the night sky. Trevor Paglen
Beautiful Sky Looking Stars Kind Seeing More Through Up Than Artificial Anything Moving Planet Star Night Imagine
I think the automation of vision is a much bigger deal than the invention of perspective. Trevor Paglen
Vision Perspective Invention Automation Think Deal Than Bigger Much
Infrastructures of power always inhabit the surface of the earth somehow, or the skies above the earth. They're material things, always, and even though the metaphors we use to describe them are often immaterial - for example, we might describe the Internet as the Cloud or cyberspace - those metaphors are wildly misleading. Trevor Paglen
Internet Example Power Cloud Immaterial Earth Wildly Those Though Somehow Above Misleading For Example Always Material Surface Material Things Metaphors Often Them Might Skies Inhabit Cyberspace Use Describe Even Things
What would the infrastructure of the Internet look like if mass surveillance wasn't its business model? Trevor Paglen
Business Internet Would Mass Like Look Surveillance Model Infrastructure Business Model
Although the organizing logic of our nation's surveillance apparatus is invisibility and secrecy, its operations occupy the physical world. Trevor Paglen
World Nation Secrecy Our Logic Physical Physical World Invisibility Although Operations Occupy Surveillance Apparatus Organizing
Geosynchronous spacecraft will be among civilization's most enduring remnants, quietly circling Earth until the Earth is no more. Trevor Paglen
Will Earth Circling More Civilization Most Until Quietly Enduring Spacecraft Among
People like to say that my work is about making the invisible visible, but that's a misunderstanding. It's about showing what invisibility looks like. Trevor Paglen
Work People Say Visible About Invisibility Invisible Like Looks Misunderstanding Making Showing
I want to help develop a visual and cultural vocabulary around surveillance. Trevor Paglen
Visual Vocabulary Develop Around Cultural Surveillance Want Help
When people understand that they are constantly monitored, they are more conformist - they are less willing to take up controversial positions - and that kind of mass conformity is incompatible with democracy. Trevor Paglen
Democracy People Positions Kind Willing Constantly More Take Mass Understand Up Controversial Conformist Conformity Less Incompatible
I have to admit that I'm not very good with grammar. They taught grammar in elementary and high school, but I went to public schools, so I never really learned it. Trevor Paglen
Good School Public Schools High Admit High School Never Schools Learned Very Taught Grammar Public Really Elementary
I always start with the assumption that everything that happens in the world is actually in the world. It sounds like an obvious thing to say, but it's a very powerful methodological premise. Trevor Paglen
World Assumption Everything Say Powerful Like Obvious Always Sounds Very Happens Premise Actually Thing Start
What I thought was fascinating about comparative religion was that these were the stories that humans have told themselves about where they come from, who they are and where they're going, and what it means to be alive on the planet. Trevor Paglen
Religion Thought Alive About Come Were Going Where Stories Themselves Planet Means Who Fascinating Comparative Humans
Once you start looking into the infrastructure, it becomes obvious very quickly that 99 percent of the world's information goes through little tubes under the ocean. Those are very juicy targets for someone who wants to surveil the world. Trevor Paglen
You World Looking Ocean Once Those Someone Percent Through Obvious Becomes Juicy Very Targets Quickly Goes Tubes Wants Information Little Infrastructure Who Start
I wanted to make an artwork that really underlined the contradiction between how machines see and how humans see. Because music is so affective and is just as corporeal as it is cerebral, I thought coupling a music performance with machine vision adds up to something that work on an emotional, aesthetic, and intellectual level. Trevor Paglen
Work Music Vision Thought Adds Machine Machines See Something Emotional Performance Between Make Because How Aesthetic Affective Intellectual Up Contradiction Just Artwork Wanted Cerebral Really Level Humans
Image-making, along with storytelling and music, is the stuff that culture is made out of. Trevor Paglen
Music Culture Made Out Stuff Along Storytelling
In the very near future, I guarantee that the pictures you post on social media will affect your credit rating, health and auto insurance policies, and much more. It will all happen automatically. In a very real way, our rights and freedoms will be modulated by our metadata signatures. What's at stake, obviously, is the future of the human race! Trevor Paglen
Future Health You Rights Post Social Media Will Our Way More Rating Freedoms Pictures Obviously Policies Insurance Real Affect Very Auto Human Happen Automatically Race Stake Social Much Your Human Race Media Near Credit Credit Rating Guarantee
Show me what society that ever existed that did not use the tools that they had available. Ask any person from East Germany... you will never hear somebody say, 'The Stasi never bothered me because I didn't have anything to hide.' That's not a thing that people say. Trevor Paglen
Me You People Hide Will Somebody Society Tools Say East People Say Bothered Never Had Because Hear Existed Germany Person Did Any Anything Available Ask Use Show Ever Thing
Injustice drives me crazy! Trevor Paglen
Me Crazy Injustice Drives
I think that one of the most important things that art can do is give you a reason to look at something, almost give you permission to look at something. Trevor Paglen
Art You Important Important Things Think Give Something Almost Look Most Permission The Most Important Reason Things
American intelligence and military agencies have a huge footprint in terms of how the world works, but they're largely invisible. I'm interested in exploring those 'geographies' of secrecy from many different angles: political, legal, economic, spatial, etc., because I am fundamentally just interested in how the world works and how societies work. Trevor Paglen
Work Legal Intelligence World Political Military Secrecy Those Angles Economic Invisible Footprint Terms Because How Am Huge American Just Different Different Angles Etc Interested Agencies Spatial Exploring Many Works Largely Societies Fundamentally
Photographs don't 'reveal' much at all but instead help us generate a kind of visual vocabulary that we can use to make sense of the world and direct our attention to certain things around us. In other words, they help us learn how to see. Trevor Paglen
Words World Sense Other Our Kind Visual Photographs See Direct Vocabulary Generate Instead Attention Make Learn Around Reveal How In Other Words Us Much Certain Use Certain Things Help Things
At extreme distances, there is essentially no such thing as depth of field. Trevor Paglen
Field Distances Extreme Essentially Depth Thing
I think that some of the earliest ideas in the modern period were actually from astronomy. You look at Galileo: He goes up and points his telescope up at Jupiter and finds out, hey, Jupiter has these moons. Trevor Paglen
You Think Hey Telescope Astronomy Out Finds Some Points He Ideas Look Period Were His Up Jupiter Goes Modern Galileo Actually Earliest
Nothing that you make in the world exists in isolation from the social and political and ecological dimensions of it. Trevor Paglen
You World Political Isolation Nothing Dimensions Ecological Make Exists Social
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