“The black world is much more than an archipelago of secret bases. It is a secret basis underlying much of the American… — Trevor Paglen American economy Copy Share Image
To go and photograph an airbase is not only to photograph something but it is to insist on one’s right to photograph.… — Trevor Paglen Flexing Copy Share Image
Art is more than a series of images that are disembodied. Art is objects that live in real places, economies, spaces, architecture. — Trevor Paglen Architecture Copy Share Image
I think that some of the earliest ideas in the modern period were actually from astronomy. You look at Galileo: He goes… — Trevor Paglen Astronomy Copy Share Image
How has the sky been transformed by drones? How has the ocean been transformed by the fact that over 90% of the… — Trevor Paglen Drones Copy Share Image
The most famous secret base, I guess, would be Area 51, which a lot of people have heard of as a kind… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
Much of the way we understand the world is through images. That's what I think good art does - it teaches you… — Trevor Paglen Art Copy Share Image
If we look in the right places at the right times, we can begin to glimpse America's vast intelligence infrastructure. — Trevor Paglen America Copy Share Image
“Spyglasses, as Lipperhey called telescopes, whether they're in the form of spotting scopes, spyplanes, or reconnaissance satellites, are more than simple instruments… — Trevor Paglen Telescopes Copy Share Image
One project I am pretty excited about is 'Autonomy Cube.' These are basically minimalist sculptures that create a free and open Wi-Fi… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
I wanted to make an artwork that really underlined the contradiction between how machines see and how humans see. Because music is… — Trevor Paglen Artwork Copy Share Image
The dead spacecraft in orbit have become a permanent fixture around our planet, not unlike the rings of Saturn. They will be… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
“The CIA, an agency designed to operate outside the law, was now free to pursue its vision of a new world, to… — Trevor Paglen Dreams Copy Share Image
When people understand that they are constantly monitored, they are more conformist - they are less willing to take up controversial positions… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
It was a very strange time in the late 1950s/early 1960s, when people were putting things in space, but that language of… — Trevor Paglen Artist Copy Share Image
Engineers working in the 'black world' of classified military projects are often referred to in military circles as 'black hats.' There are… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
To me, traditional approaches to doing photography and thinking about photography feel increasingly anachronistic. — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
I have to admit that I'm not very good with grammar. They taught grammar in elementary and high school, but I went… — Trevor Paglen Education Copy Share Image
Although the organizing logic of our nation's surveillance apparatus is invisibility and secrecy, its operations occupy the physical world. — Trevor Paglen Logic Copy Share Image
What started happening really quickly after 9/11 and the construction of this 'War on Terror' business is that I saw all kinds… — Trevor Paglen Business Copy Share Image
If secrecy is made out of the same stuff that the rest of the world is made out of, then it's fundamentally… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
Infrastructures of power always inhabit the surface of the earth somehow, or the skies above the earth. They're material things, always, and… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
Perhaps 'photography' has become so all-pervasive that it no longer makes sense to think about it as a discreet practice or field… — Trevor Paglen Photography Copy Share Image
We know that, immediately after 9/11, the CIA set up a program to collaborate with 80 foreign countries to varying degrees. The… — Trevor Paglen Cia Copy Share Image
The switch has been built. Maybe you trust Barack Obama not to throw that switch, and maybe you trust George Bush not… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
Creating artworks, writing and publishing novels, poetry, music, or conducting art-historical research requires support. So does everything else in the world, from… — Trevor Paglen Art Copy Share Image
For a time, people were getting arrested for photographing the Brooklyn Bridge. So to me, what it meant to do photography also… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
Once you start looking into the infrastructure, it becomes obvious very quickly that 99 percent of the world's information goes through little… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
In human geography, we think about landscapes as being political, social, cultural, economic, and physical things all at the same time. And… — Trevor Paglen Geography Copy Share Image
If I was a CIA front company, what would I want to be able to do? Well, I would want to be… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
Digital surveillance programs require concrete data centres; intelligence agencies are based in real buildings. Surveillance systems ultimately consist of technologies, people, and… — Trevor Paglen Data Copy Share Image
We imagine going to the moon and planting a flag, going to an asteroid and mining, going to Mars and setting up… — Trevor Paglen Earth Copy Share Image
American intelligence and military agencies have a huge footprint in terms of how the world works, but they're largely invisible. I'm interested… — Trevor Paglen Copy Share Image
Looking out at the photographic landscape that surrounds us - the world of images and image-making that we inhabit - it seems… — Trevor Paglen Dramatic Copy Share Image
