Doomscroll: Trevor Paglen

Welcome to Doomscroll. I’m excited to announce episode #05 with guest Trevor Paglen. This program has had an amazing response so far. I’m glad we are able to bring these conversations to a new and wider audience.

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This week my guest is artist and geographer Trevor Paglen whose work has inspired me for many years. Paglen’s art and writing help us link new technological developments to larger political issues that are often secret or unseen. We discuss:

• The CIA’s long history with magic and mind hacking. (I know this one already sounds fake but it is very real.)

• The emerging paradigm of “psyops capitalism”; an extractive media environment that responds to user inputs and generates individualized content.

• Early UFO’s and disinformation as an analog to our present day experience of social media.

Trevor Paglen has inspired my peer-group and generation. While most of contemporary art has retreated into hermetic practices that seek to ignore the outside world, Paglen remains an influential figure at the forefront of our cultural discourse. As new technologies reshape our society and communication networks, art’s ability to leverage aesthetic and political critiques may serve a vital role in understanding the real impact of these tools.

I teach Trevor Paglen’s work in my university courses. We’ve explored his art and games on the live-stream. Earlier this year we published a profile on him over at Do Not Research. I’m hopeful that this program can bring these high level discussions to a real world audience. Perhaps it can help us to remember what makes art special in the first place.

Watch the full episode here. If you like this material, please share with your friends. Reaching new viewers helps us to keep this project going. We’ve got a lot more coming up for season 1!

Doomscroll #05 Trevor Paglen: Mind Hacking, AI and Psyops Capitalism