Major

Fri, May 9, 2008 | 7:30 PM

New Museum theater (directions)

Blank Spots on a Map: State Secrecy and the Limits of the Visible

Part of New Silent

Geographer and artist Trevor Paglen takes us on a road trip through the world of hidden budgets, state secrets, on covert military bases, and more, guiding us through a landscape that military and intelligence insiders call the "black world." Over the course of his talk, Paglen leads us from "nonexistent" Air Force and CIA installations in the Nevada desert to secret prisons in Afghanistan and to a collection of even more obscure "black sites" startlingly close to home. Using hundreds of images he has produced and collected over the course of his work, Paglen shows how the black world's internal contradictions give rise to a peculiar visual, aesthetic, and epistemological grammar with which to think about the contemporary moment.

Sponsors TOP

Organized by Lauren Cornell, Executive Director of Rhizome, the New Silent Series receives major support from The Rockefeller Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.