Tracking Transience
Hasan Elahi works with issues in surveillance, privacy, migration, citizenship, technology, and the challenges of borders.
Artist BioAn erroneous tip called into law enforcement authorities after 9/11 subjected Hasan Elahi to an intensive investigation by the FBI and after undergoing months of interrogations, he was finally cleared of suspicions. After this harrowing experience, Elahi conceived Tracking Transience and opened just about every aspect of his life to the public. Predating the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program by half a decade, the project questions the consequences of living under constant surveillance and continuously generates databases of imagery that tracks the artist and his points of transit in real-time. Although initially created for his FBI agent, the public can also monitor the artist’s communication records, banking transactions, and transportation logs along with various intelligence and government agencies who have been confirmed visiting his website.
Hasan Elahi
Portland, OR
Hasan Elahi works with issues in surveillance, privacy, migration, citizenship, technology, and the challenges of borders. His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions at venues such as SITE Santa Fe, Centre Georges Pompidou, Sundance Film Festival, and at the Venice Biennale. Elahi has spoken to audiences as diverse as the Tate Modern, and presented to broadly diverse institutional audiences, including: the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, International Association of Privacy Professionals, TED Global, and the World Economic Forum. His work is frequently covered in the media and has appeared on Al Jazeera, Fox News, and on The Colbert Report. In addition to the Creative Capital Award in 2006, his awards include grants from the Art Matters Foundation in 2011, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016. In 2014, he was Artist-in-Residence at Shangri-La/Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and in 2009, Resident Faculty at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He is currently Professor and Director of the School of Art at George Mason University. Elahi is also a Board Member of Creative Capital.