34C3 - Tracking Transience

34C3 preroll music

Herald: So. The last are the best or
something like that. Our next speaker is

here waiting for this massive crowd that
will support him to go through his

experience with the FBI. He's gonna share
with us the way he informs the FBI about

his behaviors. So it's not just like in
cycling or other sports but ... I don't

know what sport you do, Hasan. But these
easy sports men in communication with FBI.

Please give a welcome applause ... Yes!
Last are the best. Oh sorry ...

Hasan: That's pointing to me. The arrow
will start making sense. Really I mean

... How amazing has it been the last few
days here, right? It's been this ...

amazingly intense last few days and it's
kind of ... You know it's, it's an honor

to kind of wrap this up and I really
appreciate you guys hanging out here till

the very very very last time slot. Thank
you, thank you for coming. This is ... it

means a lot. I've been hearing a lot
about this Congress for many years and

this is my first time here and it's just
... you know, I was just telling some

friends that I consider myself relatively
tech literate and then I come here and I

feel like everyone speaking a completely
different foreign language that I have no

idea what's happening. And it's not
because some of the talks are in German.

It's like literally like some of the
subject matter is so specific that it's

so easy to be completely like: What is
being discussed? So I'm gonna tell you,

it's something a little bit more ... you
know, a little more of a story and kind of

tell you about what I've been doing. So
I'm an artist and I get called all sorts

of different things I get ... You know,
sometimes I get lumped in with the media

artists, sometimes with sculptor,
sometimes with photographers, sometimes I

get called a con artist. But so ... so
it's kind of odd being in this, being in

this gatherings. Particularly after some
of the other talks that I've been sitting

in on. But let me tell you a little bit
about how this thing came about, this

thing with the arrow. By the way I'm at
elahi.org or elahi.umd.edu. I'll show you

some of my works but mainly I'll be
focusing on this one project which is

called Tracking Transience which I
started shortly after 9/11. So let me just

give you a live feed of what it looks
like. So this is, this is it. So you can

go on the web and you could follow me at
any given moment. And there's this pixel,

this arrow that comes here, which is actually...
These days we're so used to seeing

ourselves as pixels on a map. But this
project was started 2002 and back then to

see yourself as a pixel was just such an
unusual thing. I mean, these days we ...

You know, these days you're driving down
the road and there's that little icon on

the GPS, that tells you exactly where you
are. Or you know the ... I mean like, you

know, like when was the last time you
bought one of those maps at the gas

station? You opened it up ... Do you
remember that? I mean, we don't ... it's

just like we just completely lost that. We
can't even know how to fold a map back up

anymore. You know, cuz back in the old
days you'd have to take out that map and

you'd go: "We're here!" So you'd have to
locate yourself to the geography within

that map. These days, you take out that
magic phone, you press that little button,

and you become the center of your own
map. And your ... the map resizes to you.

So the space of the ... So looking at
yourself as a digital space versus a

physical space. You know it's, it's a
totally different concept that we're

running into now and for some reason this
looks like this got caught up over here.

So let's give it another kick. And
hopefully it'll kick in again.

Okay. So, that's, that's, so this is, this is where
I started. So the project starts here.

And you know, then this goes through the
cycles of everything that I eat and ...

You know, let's see what comes up after
this. You know, you can probably see where

this place is. You probably recognize
that. So these are all the meals that

I've been cooking at home. And I photograph
all of them. It's just kind of interesting.

As now it's like it's so common
on Instagram, it's like, you know, if

people think that you know, well, why else
would you be using Instagram other than

posting photos of your food? But I help
out the FBI with this. So I sent this ...

So this was on Friday December 4th. This
was at the corner of Santa Clara and 11th

in San Jose. I got, I bought gas there.
This is at the Gimhae Airport in Busan.

This is some tripe, that I've cooked at
home. Because I really like tripe.

This is, this is actually the Barack Hussein
Obama School in Jakarta, Indonesia,

1st March. This is, this is, ... Sorry, this is
going so fast. So every few moments, what

I do is: I take a photograph and I
timestamp my life and I send it to the

FBI. And, well you know, it's ... And
it's also kind of interesting. Because

these days, the project means something
so different. When I first started this

project, people would be like: "Oh no no,
don't show up at my house!" And now it's

like - You know, it's not like if you're
don't, if you're not on social media, if

you're not connected, like people think of
you are some, some weirdo or something.

So what happens here is that this thing of
like continuously, continuously

monitoring myself and continuously
checking in ... You know, now a lot of

people are like: "I don't get this. This
looks like my Instagram feed. What's the

big deal?" But then this concept of self-
surveillance or this, this watching

ourselves or monitoring ourselves for the
sake of someone else, whether it be your

Twitter followers or in my case the FBI
... I mean, this is something that's

become so commonplace. And each of us are
creating our own archives. So a lot of

the shifts that's taking place culturally
- I think it's really important to think

about this, because, you know, it's like,
like this bed. I mean, you're not really

sure what happened in that bed. You're
not really sure who I was there with. Or

you see these like random train stations.
There are always these empty spaces.

There's like ... no one's ever there, and
every now and then you might see some

people. But they just, they just tend to
be incidental to the image.

Which is kind of interesting when you look at
like the "no photography" or the

"ask permission

of people that are in there" Which is
really amazing to think about. That like

how many cameras are there in every given
moment? Actually in this room, right now,

they're at least twice as many cameras as
there are people. Because there's one

camera in the front of your phone and
another one in the back of your phone. And

who knows how many other cameras in, in
all the other devices and everything else

that we are putting in. So we can't
really escape these cameras, regardless of

what we do. And so all of these things,
all these bits and pieces that I'm

archiving of my life. So every few moments
another photo gets put up and it gets

tagged with the geo tag of where it was.
Again this is something that's so common

today but 12, 13, 14 years ago this was
completely just like: "What are you doing

and why are you doing this?"

And ...
sorry ... So yeah, and then of course

there's all these toilets because, uh, my
FBI agent really needs to know. I figure

the FBI, that ... You know, they want to
know my business and I'm very open and I'm

very sharing. So I figure, I'm gonna tell
them every little bit of detail,

including the toilets that I use and how
frequently and where I go. You know, they

need to know, so! Really, what's
happening, you know and, and what I'm

really, what I'm really doing is: I'm,
it's, it's a matter of telling you

everything and telling you absolutely
nothing simultaneously. It's a barrage of

noise. Look, I know that eventually, you
know, machine and AI machine readers and

AI is going to get so, so sophisticated,
that at a certain point this idea of

overwhelming the system, it's not going
to be possible. This is a temporary fix.

And the reason I chose this fix is, you
know, obviously the FBI has a file on me.

By the way, the background story of this
is: I got reported as a terrorist.

I guess, I should probably explain on that
a little bit. So shortly after 9/11, my

landlords, that I rented this storage
space from, called the police and said,

that an Arab man had fled on September
12th, who is hoarding explosives.

Never mind. There were no explosives.
Never mind,

it wasn't an Arab man.
But you know, that Arab man

would be me. Even though
I'm Bengali and we're actually not Arabs.

But it doesn't matter because as far as
many people ... You know, they're all the

same over there. They're all kind of fun.
You know, that's, it's, it's that mentality

So I spent six months of my
life with the FBI, convincing them that

I'm not a terrorist. And after all that
they said: "Okay, everything's great,

you're fine", and I said: "Okay,
wonderful, can I get a letter saying :

I'm fine?" There's a little problem with
that, because have you ever tried to get

something that says: "You're not guilty
of something you never did"? So you know,

so ever since then I've been with my FBI
agent. I said: "Hey, what can I do? I

mean, I travel a lot. All we need is the
next guy not to get the next memo and

here we go all over again. How do I avoid
this?" So at that moment he gave me a

phone. He says: "Here's some phone
numbers. If you get into trouble, give us

a call. We'll take care of it." So ever
since then I would call my FBI agent,

tell him where I was going, send him
photos to all of these things, and thus

that's what this whole project started. In
a ... I mean back then when I started this

project, shortly after 9/11, I mean, my
phone was like those old ... Remember

those old Nokia 6600? Those like super
chunky ones and you had to hit the buttons

like a whole bunch of times to send like
one text message across? And we should

call them smart phones back then. I mean,
they're really not that smart, but

they're kind of smart phones. Anyway. So
this process of like sending all this

information to the FBI. I started telling
them everything. And also at the same

time by telling them everything I'm also
telling them absoutely nothing because

it's just a wall of noise. And in that
noise there is some signal and the ratio,

the signal-to-noise ratio, is actually
pretty skewed. It's pretty, it's pretty

out of sync in that sense. Because it's,
it's difficult for the, for the viewer to

know what they're looking at. So if you
don't s–. That website, it's a, it's, it

is an archaic website. I mean, it is
completely obsolete technologically, but

more importantly, it's also one of these
things, it's, it's intentionally user-

unfriendly. It's not, you know,
information is not categorized in a way

where, you know, "oh, I want to see this
data this time". It's like, it's just, it

just comes in it, whichever way it, the,
the algorithm these days feels like

generating the, the info. So sometimes
you might see a taco, then you might see

the next one from Mexico City, then
Mexico City might go to like this place

because I took a flight from there to
Houston. So you might get some images

from Houston next. And then from Houston
you might get some things from another

city in the back and forth. So it actually
takes all these pathways various through

it. So in this process I'm really, you
know, it's, it's, I'm telling you

everything and nothing in this
camouflage. In this, you know, thing of,

like, you know, historic camouflage. Now
the concept of camouflage particularly in

digital identity is really important.
Because historically, when you hear

camouflage, it's usually meant for, you
know, warfare, battle, soldiers. And the

reason we have, the reason, camouflage
looks at certain ways, because it was

designed to break the silhouette of the
body of the soldier in the battlefield,

in the landscape of warfare. So this is
why, you know, certain trees look certain

colors and when you look, you know, it's
every place you go, there's a different

war. Each, with each war, there's a
different pattern, that, that's used. Now

if you look at the new camouflage, that
most troops are wearing, particularly in

the US, where I live, it's all pixeled,
it's all pixelized, you know, it's all,

and it's all this, like, weirdly grayish,
greenish color. I don't know if you've

noticed that color. But there's no trees
that color anywhere. It's because it's

not meant for blending into the landscape
anymore. It's no longer meant so the

soldier has to blend into the
battlefield. The reason it's pixelized and

it's that grayish, greenish color is
because we no longer have a need for the

soldier to blend in to the battlefield,
the physical battlefield. But what we want

is the soldier to be, so the enemy cannot
distinguish the physical body of the

soldier in the noise and the night-vision
goggles. That's why it's that color.

That's why it's that grayish green. So this
is a huge step. So we no longer, it's no

longer about the physical presence of the
body in the, in the war field, in the, in

warfare. But it's now about the, it's now
where the, the digital body, that the

physical body is intentionally
camouflaged and mistaken for a digital

artifact. It's that pixelization, that we've forced basically in

warfare. And a lot of work, that I do,
with a lot of, a lot of the art, that I

come up with, comes out of warfare and
such. And I'll show you a little. But this

is a really important piece, that I
wanted to talk to you about. Because this

was taken from one of the earliest samples
of what the US Army uses. And it was done

at the, at the base, at Natick, which is
the, outside of Boston. This is where a

lot of the camouflage in the US is
designed. It's the US Army's fashion

design department. Though they would never
call it the fashion design department. But

this is where they design all the
camouflage and the, and the outfits. And

so this sample was taken ... At first, it
just looks like a modernist grid. Various

photographs and such. But what they
really are, is ... I took the old sample

and I blew it out and took out each pixel
and replaced each pixel with a photograph

of a historic or current point of
conflict. So there's these two images

right in the middle. If you look. The two
blue images over there, kind of in the

middle to the bottom, those are in North
Korea. Those are north the 38th parallel.

That could technically, north the
parallel. So you're actually in North

Korean territory, but at Panmunjom.
There's actually six buildings and three

... And all six are built directly across
the border. And, you know, it's kind of

unpractical to share half the building
with another country. So three of the

buildings belong to South Korea, three of
them belong to North Korea. So these were

the South Korean buildings. But physically
in North Korean territory. Similar like

that plate of ham that you see right
below it, you know, it's a Spanish ham.

And being a good Muslim, I really do
enjoy my Spanish ham. But this was, this

was photographed in Guernica, the site of
a brutal massacre. Shortly ... you know,

so similarly, so each of the, every
single one of these images, they might

seem like these generic or bland images,
but they're all historic conflicts or

current conflicts. There's, there's an
image in the, in the upper right hand, in

the upper left hand corner, right there,
and it's, it's of an office building with

just a flag with three stripes going
across. And this is like a quick world

affairs quiz. Which country has, has a
flag that goes three horizontal stripes

across, the top and bottom are red, and
the middle one is green? Any guesses on

this country? Three stripes, red, green,
red. Lots of confused looks,. Huh? ...

It's, it's a trick question. The country
doesn't exist. It's a, it's Transnistria

or at least the Russians call it
Pridnestrovia. And it's a breakaway

republic of Moldova, it's a tiny little
sliver of land between Moldova and

Ukraine. Maybe about 20, 30 kilometers
wide and maybe about 200 kilometers long.

This tiny, tiny, tiny sliver ... no one
... They have it, well, by the way, they

have their own military, they have their
own passports, they have their own

currency, they have their own judicial
system, they've their own everything. Like

a country, except no one recognizes them
as a country. But if you need to go buy 20

cases of AK-47s, this is the place to go.
So this is, this tiny piece of land, this

tiny piece of land, that no one
recognizes, is really where a lot of the

destabilization of the world comes from.
So I went over there and then of course I

would tell my FBI agent: "This is where I
was going, just loitering." He was like:

"What are you doing over there?" So I
said: "I'm just hanging out, just seeing

what's going on." Anyway. So again, all
of the, every single one of these images,

there's bits and pieces of these types of
source ... But I want to go back at the

state of warfare and talk to you a little
bit about that. So, I live in the US. And

you know, it's we're, you know, currently
at the war on terror. Actually the, the

real name is the Global War on Terror. And
this was a drawing that I did for a

project a few years ago. And there's a,
there's a congressional document. So

there's this document, that the US
Congress keeps, and it's called the

"Instances of Use of United States Armed
Forces Abroad", this time was 1798 to

2006. This gets updated every year. And
interestingly enough, when you look at

this document, it's ... everything is just
the facts, everything is, you know, in

1838, you know, Marines chased pirates
onto a Caribbean island. Well, when the

Marines landed on that Caribbean island,
we invaded that country. Any time you send

your troops on to another country soil
without that country's permission, you

have invaded that country. So everything
from like, you know, Marines chasing

pirates to a Caribbean island all the way
to World War One, it's all just one,

everything's just listed as one instance,
just straight down like ... And this, and

it's just, goes on for pages and pages and
pages and pages and pages and, you know,

so and then you look at it like: "Wait.
When, when did, when did the US invade

Florida?" Well, that was when it was Spanish
territory, this is a, you know, before

that became part of United States
similarly, you know ... So when you look

at it, all the white X's are all the
invasions, that the US has undertaken

between 1776, which was the year of the
independence, to World War One. All the

gray X's are World War One to Vietnam. And
all the black X's are Vietnam to today.

The number of invasions, that the US
troops have undertaken between 1776 and

World War One, roughly equate the same
amount as World War One to Vietnam. And

the number of invasions from 1776
to Vietnam roughly equate Vietnam to

today. In the last 100 years, in the last
117 years, since 1900, there's only

been five years, where the US has not
been at war. Interestingly enough, we've

only declared war 11 times in history.
Since independence of the country, the US

has only formally declared war 11 times.
Yet of the all the years, that we've ever

been an independent country, like there's
only like 20 or 30 years, that we haven't

been at war. And most of those are pre
1800. And then... So since

1900, there's only been five years. And
you can see all of these dots. So one of

the reasons that I wanted to create this
document, is that I had this proposal,

that I wanted to do for this, uh, this
museum in Spain. And I was talking to

curator and I said: "Hey. You know, it
would be really great, what if we set up

a wall of like bulletproof glass in the
gallery. So we'll just, it's like, as

people are going around the museum, we
just set up a huge bulletproof, huge

sheet of bulletproof glass with a really
faint drawing of the world. And we'll

have got, we'll have a guy with a rifle
in the back and he'll shoot bullets at the

audience. But the, but because there's
bulletproof glass, it'll stop. And I mean,

I knew that there was just no way they
would go for it. But to my surprise, they

said: "Let us talk to some security people
and we'll get back to you about this."

And I was really surprised. So in the
meantime, we did some ballistics tests.

So check this out. Look at, look at, I
mean, like, that's what it looks

like. I mean, it's just beautiful when ...
I mean, just the way, like, when

basically, when bullets hit bulletproof
glass. It's not really glass, it's just

very dense plastic. And the heat of the
bullet comes in at such velocity,

that the plastic melts just ever so
slightly and then just swallows the bullet

back up and it freezes back up, so
slightly liquefies and then solidifies.

This is what happens inside your body,
when you get shot. Except your body

doesn't just, you know, absorb the bullet
and just refreeze together. It's just

like this really scary looking thing of
just looking at that, that blunt trauma,

that immediate point of when that
bullet hits. This is what happens. So we

did some ballistics tests and we went
through some ideas and then, and then of

course, as I expected, they said: "No,
you're crazy, there's no way we're doing

this." But they were willing to send this
out to, to off-site. And we built this in

these fabricators built this off-site.
And of course then there was these other

problems of, you know, if we build this in
the US and send it to the museum, I mean,

you know, when it comes into Europe, does
it get imported as artwork or does it get

imported as, well, possibly firearms
because there's actual real gunpowder in

it? There's a lot of problems. So in
order to deal with the customs issues

of it, we figured, you
know, what, let's just ship it,

let's just have it built in Spain. And
then, as we were about to build this, we

realized: There was a little pesky Spanish
law, that requires you to be at least 25

meters away from the intended target. You
can't discharge a weapon in less than 25

meters of its intended target. Now of
course I wanted this piece to be gigantic.

And then you could only imagine, that
this, the price of the bulletproof glass,

as it gets larger and larger and larger.
So we eventually agreed that it'll be 4

meters by 2 meters. Except at that scale,
each of these dots, each of these bull–,

each of these targets then become like 3
millimeters or 4 millimeters in diameter.

Now I don't know how many of you do
shooting or target practice or any of

that. But try to hit 330 dots that are
about 3 to 4 millimeters in

diameter from 25 meters away, one after
another, without missing them. That's

actually practically impossible. So I was
like: How do we do this? And then the

museum fortunately hired three former
Olympians to do this. It was just

unbelievable, watching these guys. And of
the 330 bullets, that are there, 326 of

them were exactly on center. The four that
were off, were no more than five, five

millimeters, and I'm convinced I just
drew them wrong. Those four, I mean, it's

just, it's just unbelievable. But you,
but you can see what happens. So in the

middle over here, this is Central
America, we have hit, we have invaded

Central America so many times. That as
you keep hitting these bullets, these

physical, these bullets, just eventually
the bulletproof glass just shatters and

gives away, I mean, it so, it causes a
literal wreck. So it's kind of

interesting, looking at this, this very
abstract concept of, of these invasions,

these political, these types of political
policies, that we have, and what the

physical manifestation of that, what that
does in a map. But what does that do to

the physical geography? So I'm really
interested in this idea of geography body,

data body, this physicality and the
virtuality and how these two come

together. And this. So similarly, uh,
I've been, I've been doing a lot of these

things about warfare and such. And I want
to show you this project. This is a

project that I've been working on in, in
Hawaii recently. And you know, Hawaii, I

mean, who's gonna turn down a job in
Hawaii? It was pretty unbelievable,

getting a chance to do this
project. And so, when you go to, when you

in... Hawaii is a really
interesting, at least in American policy

and American political and cultural
perspectives, Hawaii is a very unique

place. Because Hawaii is the ultimate
manifestation or the ultimate, like,...

embodiment of what we in, in the, in the
US we have this term called "manifest

destiny", which was a term from the early
1700, actually the late 1700s, in the

early history of America, where we
decided to start in the East and the

Atlantic and expand all the way across
the ... That we will manifest the

country and the whole land will become
ours. This is the birth of the US. This

is the idea of how the country was, was
given birth to. Now, Hawaii is a really

interesting situation in this perspective
because now, you know, we've started on

the Atlantic coast, we've
conquered, conquered, conquered,

conquered, conquered, got, went all there
over to the end. We've gone to the Pacific

Ocean. And now we've crossed the Pacific
Ocean. And now we've gone to this middle

of this, this rock in the middle of the,
of the ocean. And now we're at the top of

the mountain. So we've actually, like, you
know, then all that, then ... The

interesting thing is: Hawaiian culture,
when you go to the peaks of each of the

mountains, every, every of the mountain
peaks are sacred. Interestingly enough,

when you go to each of these mountaintops,
they're all, well, there are almost always

US military or some sort of government or
some sort of science. But, of course, for

many ... And now, granted, I know, there
is some amazing stuff being done. But

there's a lot of also very shady, you
know, like it's military stuff being

done. And it's also this thing of like
going up and then now with these

surveillance devices, these telescopes at
the top of each of these monitoring and

surveying and measuring everything out in
the West and out in the sky. And you

know, so we've gone through the West,
which is also a really interesting thing

about the history of landscape in
America. Let me show you, let me show you

a couple of these images of the top of
this place, which is just, it's just

beautiful going up there. I mean, it
looks like Mars. And a lot of the Mars

tests were actually done up there because
... I mean, it's just amazing.

Like you're looking down at the sky and
there's these like satellites everywhere.

I mean, it really does look like a Martian
landscape. I'm really interested in this.

Okay, so let me show you these projects.
I've been really interested in watching

the watchers of this thing of ... like
... And what happens when you aestheticize

surveillance. I mean, obviously, this is
a major issue for a lot of us. And a lot

of the conference topics here, talks
about privacy and what to do and how to

stop mass surveillance and things of
that type. But when you hear the word

"surveillance imagery", what do you think
of? What are you thinking? Just imagine:

a picture, "surveillance imagery". What
does it look like to you? And for most of

us, we generally probably think of like,
you know, like, what CCTV or surveillance

camera images look like. Usually grainy,
pixely, no, gritty, sometimes black and

white. You know, with this audience, we already know data
storage is cheap. I mean, this data

storage, I mean, you could buy a terabyte
drive for like 30 bucks. So data, you

know, it's, and it gets cheaper and
cheaper every day. And the capacity gets

larger and larger. So it's not necessarily
an economic issue. But it's actually more

of a cultural issue. And, and I'm
proposing the fact that when you hyper-

aestheticize a surveillance image, your
brain no longer reads it as surveillance.

Your brain rejects the image when it's
too aesthetically pleasing. You read it as

landscape or you read it as, read it as
landscape photography. And, and many of

the, in the case of landscape photography
and many of it is, the history of it is

based on landscape painting. So it's
really that, that gritty graininess that

actually gives us the, the emotional
attachment that this is a surveillance

image. Because when it becomes, when it
doesn't have those characteristics, when

it doesn't have those qualities, it
becomes a photo or a video. So in this

case, I just, I was really interested in
what happens when, when you hyper-

aestheticize that. And imagine if you had
x-ray vision. Imagine you had x-ray

vision. You could see right through this
wall. What would you see on the other of

this wall? Well, this image, which
actually looks like a window pane. They're

actually six very large monitors and this
is, this functions as a see-

through wall. So you could actually see
through this wall. And just so, it just

so happened that on the other side of the,
of the wall from this exhibition space

was the Baltimore Police Department. So I
loved the idea of being able to watch the

police watching me watching them. And
when you notice that there's that, next in

the blue light there's a little
surveillance camera on top of their

dumpster which really doesn't make any
sense to me why they would need a

surveillance camera over their dumpster.
But I just love this image of just this

constant reflecting back and forth and
watching and watching and watching back.

And in the image you couldn't tell, you
know, whether it was, whether you're

looking at a photograph or whether you're
looking at a video or whether you're, you

know, it's just every now that you see
some blurry lights move by or some of

these figures. But really, you know, if
you look at a lot of what machine vision,

a lot of the software, I mean, you know,
like, you know, you see those things on

the TV with all those people looking at
those monitors. And that's, no, that's,

that's like the movies or that's like they
used for like fundraising. The real stuff

is all machines looking at this stuff. And
it doesn't actually look that sexy at all.

So I love this idea of actually taking
this image and, you know, seeing

what can happen when it's
aestheticized. Now similarly, you know,

what happens when the form is
aestheticized? This is the very

similar project at another location. But
this is what you would see through the

wall. And when you see this, I mean, your
brain completely rejects this as a

surveillance image. But this is exactly
what happens right on the other side over

there. So thinking about the idea of
aesthetics and what surveillance looks

like and at least, you know, growing up
in an American context, you know, so

a lot of the history of American
photography comes from American painting

or landscape painting. And the history of
a lot of our landscape painting comes from

the Hudson River School, which is the
Northeast and, you know, up north of New

York City and up the Hudson River. These
gorgeous grand vistas, often of these

really large, you know, wide viewpoints,
of these very like subliminal, very like

spiritual type of imagery. This very
godlike imagery. Which is kind of

interesting because in the way it is like
trying to replicate this eye of God. Or if

you want to look at it from the
perspective of surveillance, in which we

generally tend to think of surveillance
as a very post 9/11 or a very 21st century

concept. I mean, most of us did not use
the word surveillance, say, you know, 20

years ago, 30 years ago. That word was
not as common. It certainly has become

incredibly common in our vocabulary very
recently. But even though we tend to

think of surveillance as a very post–, a
very 21st century concept, this is

something that's been embedded in our
history, in our brains for thousands of

years. Particularly when you look at those
early paintings. And then God as the

original surveillance camera. You behaved
because God was watching. So it was very

easy to replace this being above with a
camera above. And that becomes so

normalized in our daily lives. I mean,
think about it. How does Santa Claus know

everything about you? I mean, we were
taught this since we were at such an

early point in life. We've ... So this
normalization of surveillance, this

normalization. And also this, you know,
and ... You know, we don't think, we

never use the word surveillance when we're
talking about God. Again you know, this

aesthetics, the hyper-
aestheticization or maybe, if you want to

call, I mean, this is not exactly a
statusization. But, you know, in

the idea of thinking about it. So, again,
this relationship between the watched and

watcher. And, you know, another similar
project and one that looks like when

you break that frame of looking at ... of
the format of surveillance and when you

aestheticize the format, not only the
imagery of surveillance, but also the

format and how the surveillance is
presented. I mean, we rarely, we would

never, we wouldn't even think of this as a
surveillance camera image. But that is

exactly what this is. That's another
similar piece. I just want to show you

the context of this one. Because I want
to show you, but talk a little bit about

the project that's going on on the right.
And this image is ... So they look like

these landmines. But they also look like
satellites. I'm really interested in this

idea of like circumnavigation. I'm really
interested in these things of, you know,

conceptually this project is telling you
earlier about. This is about telling you

everything and nothing simultaneously. But
in a similar way, I'm also really

interested in this concept of Magellan and
circumnavigation, where you go far enough

to this side, you end up in the other.
You circle around the whole thing. Does

that make sense, a little bit? So in the,
you know, sometimes some people are so far

to the left, that they're actually very
much to the right and vice versa. So

there's this, the circular reasoning
that keeps coming back and forth. And I'm

really interested in this thing and ...
This could be a landmine, but

this could also be a satellite. It's,
there's these types. And then also at the

same time, like, this was, this is an
earlier project. But they also look like

selfie sticks. But then there's these,
like, all these things coming out with

these, like, these monitors sticking out
of each of ... This is pretty iPad. Well,

actually this installation was done
later. But I mean, now it's like these

tablets are like so common. And they're so
everywhere. But what ... These are 72

monitors and all the images that I've
shared with the FBI and said to my FBI

agent, these are all being shown on all
these monitors simultaneously. And you

could get an idea of what you're looking
at. So in the same sense this project was

... This is only a part of ... This
one's... This one's about,

it's about 28 feet. So that's just about
8 meters, 8 and a half meters tall, this

piece. And it's basically every photo
that I photographed and shared.

But they're all printed in these huge
pieces, in these huge, vinyl banners. And

the actual photos, each photo is about
this little. But, you know, there's like

thousands and thousands and thousands and
thousands of them. So when you look from

the back, all you see is these vertical
color stripes. Interestly enough, well,

what they, the other thing that ... I
don't necessarily disclose this in public

and I put the [unclear] but you're really looking
at all the images shot on Sunday, all the

ones on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, and so on with the seven days.

But what's also happening is, you know,
the color bars, the test bars for

color calibration of monitors, you know,
it's like ... So, one of the things that

happend, I'm sure you must have had,
I'm sure, you must have had this in

Germany. But in the US we used to
have a thing called the Emergency

Broadcast System. And the television show
would stop and would go peeep This tone

would come out and these color bars would
come on the screen and it would say "This

is a test of the Emergency Broadcast
System. Had this been a real emergency,

you would have been instructed on what to
do." So this thing of impending doom,

this thing, if something is, something bad
is about to happen or something bad could

happen. And because something like that
could happen, we need to be ready and we

need to be prepared. This thing of like,
you know, being ready for these things. So

I'm really interested in that, in this
idea of, like, what happens when

you use that tone or when you use that
color and you borrow that thing? But at

the same time, it's the very same system
that broadcasters use to calibrate

signal. So this thing of signal, you
know, and if you think about it. On a

daily basis, we generate so much digital
information. How much of it can be, how do

we calibrate that? So in a way of
giving a nod to that, that's where this

piece comes out of. So and then this one
led to the next one, which ... This has

been making the rounds throughout the
place. So this was at ZKM a couple of

years ago here. And then, now this has
been floating around Eastern Europe. And

these are, you know, they look really
small on the, in the photograph. But this

is the same piece, but lit up from the
back. I'll show you another photo of it

so you can get a better idea of this
piece. So you're seeing every little bits

and pieces and all of these things coming
together. So they're about three meters

tall, each of these slabs. And
and they're lit up from the back. So

and then this is a body of work that
I'm dealing with. So this thing of, like,

you know, libraries or archives. And we
all have them. We all create personal

archives. I mean, if you look at every
single photo you've ever shot, I mean,

which you probably have a record of. You
know, so when you have all of these, so

what, you know, so we're all keeping our
own private archives, you know, I have my

own private archive that I'm doing as a
parallel archive to the FBI. But, you

know, it doesn't have to be for the FBI.
I mean, we all ... maybe in this room, I'm

sure everybody here has been watched
by the government. And there's

probably a few people from the shady
organizations in this room right here

anyway or certainly at the conference. But
what you're looking at here is every,

maybe one of those images. And then
there's this pretty grainy black-and-white

image on top. And it looks like every
other industrial rooftop. It looks like

it's a roof top of a building. And you
can see the, the fans and the exhaust and

the vents. And then at the lower right
there's these like golf ball looking

things. And most buildings don't have
those. This happens to be the rooftop of

the NSA. This is... So really
you know, and I kind of look at

it like the NSA and you know - us,
we're kind of in the same business. We're

kind of on the information business.
Except, you know, they like to keep

theirs to themselves and I like to
give it out to everybody. So, you know,

we operate a little differently in our
business. But we're kind of in the same

business. So I decided to put this piece
out. And really, this thing of like, you

know, so, you know, in a lot of ways
they're kind of like selfies. But they're

not really selfies, because when I
photographed these things ... So let's go

back to this for now. So, you know, when
I'm photographing this, I mean, I could

have taken the camera and I could
have photographed you right now. But

instead there's this very anonymous
looking thing. I mean, like, you know, if

you've been in this room,
you know, that this could, we

know where that is. But in the same way,
there's these like really like, you know,

so the camera is not pointing towards me.
But the camera is pointing outward. And

that's what's really important here. And
there's thousands and thousands and

thousands of these. I know. So the
selfies, it's become a common thing. And

it's no shame in, you know, saying
you like the selfies. I mean, here's

President Obama trying to make the look
at selfie stick and selfies look pretty

respectable. I can't use the new guy.
I can't just bear to see him. So I

have to go with this guy. I have to go
with Obama. Because, you know, it's

important. But, you know, he's making
that, so when he's taken that image, what

happens? Now when you look at the
image, this is what, this is the image

that we're seeing. That's, that's up on my
website right now. And as soon as I leave

this room, there'll be a new image that'll
pop up and then when I get to my hotel,

you'll see another image. And then when I
get to, you know, wherever I go eat

tonight, you'll see another image. But
anyway, so, you know, every few moments I

timestamp to change it. So when we're
seeing this image, but really this is what

the, this is what the computer is seeing.
And this ... Some of you, and I'm sure

you know about this, but for those that
are not aware of it, I mean, you know,

when you look at the Exif data – I use [unclear]
which is an Exif reader to extract what

my images are or what the data that's
behind it – so you can see what the image

is. That was shot right there, in that
location. I mean, we know that because

that's how our apps know. Would you like
to check in from here? That's how it knows

the location. So location services,
that's pretty simple. And that's all the,

the metadata that's going ... But the
here it's where it gets really

interesting. The fact that when you
look at the altitude of this image,

the altitude is 186.061643, sounds about
right for Leipzig? For this area, 186

meters of altitude? Yes? No? I mean, I'm
assuming it's correct because that's what

the phone is telling me. But similarly,
what's really interesting is, when you

look at the image direction. So, I mean,
we know the latitude, longitude, that's a

given. The altitude, that's a new one.
Because an image taken on the ground, sea

level, on the ground level will look very
different than an image shot on the 20th

or 30th floor of a building. Because the
barometric sensor inside the phone will

put a different altitude number in there.
So we know, that this image can also,

if I were to shoot this image from the
roof looking down, that image probably

will be about a 188, 189, 190 meters.
Because of the distance of this. The other

part, that's really interesting, is the
image direction. The camera was tilted at

a 163 degrees from North. 0 being North,
90 East, 180 South, 270 West. So slightly

south. The camera was pointed slightly
south-ish. Which is exactly what that

camera's pointed. Now, why does this
matter? It was only a few years ago that

we were thinking: "You mean, Google is
going to drive up and down every single

road and record every single street?"
Yes, basically the only thing, that's

holding them back in certain places, is
the country's laws or the local things.

Aside from that, not only they drive up
and down every single road in every single

city in every single country that they
can. They do this repeatedly, year after

year, after year, after year, after year.
Some places they'll put, you know, like

in Venice, they'll have like someone on a
boat that goes through. On certain

pedestrian-only islands, there'll be
someone carrying a backpack of those

Google cameras around. So it wasn't that
long ago that this concept, that Google

would catalog every possible outdoor
space was seemed so far-fetched. It's only

a matter of time before we collectively
photograph every indoor space and we

catalog every single indoor space and we
photograph all of it. And sooner or

later, this database, we, through this
database of every indoor image with all

the metadata, we can restitch every
interior space. We could recreate every

interior space. Similarly, you know, then,
you know, when you look at your frequent

locations. I mean, you know, do you look
at me that's like, you know, exactly what

moment you've come on, what minute you
walked into a place, what minute you've

walked out of a place. I mean, you know,
how does your phone know that you've

taken, you know, 8934 steps today? I
mean, it's counting every single one of

them. It knows, you went three, you
know it, you've done five flights

today, because it knows that your altitude
changed from here to here to here. And it

knows every second you've done all
this. I mean, this is kind of crazy. So,

you cross-reference all of this
data. I mean, and short of basically

giving up our phones. I mean, this data
is being collected and it's gonna happen.

It's going to get archived. I mean, you
know, there's plenty of, you

know, but at these... that these phones
are just like, it's inevitable. And we're

not going to give up our lives without
them. So you cross-reference all of

these. And very quickly it creates
a complete picture of the owner of that

device. Now back in the old days, you
know, you'd have to, you know, the

intelligence agencies would waste all of
this energy or follow people around. I

mean, you know, it wasn't that long ago.
It happened right here. I mean, you'd have

people following other people around.
You'd have databases. And you have

archives on other archives. This record-
keeping, this massive amount of analog

record-keeping, was not, this is
not far-fetched. This happened very

recently. Now, why should they
go around, do that today, when they can

just go to one of the companies and say:
"Hey. You don't want you give it to us?"

Now we know, you know, of course here's,
you know, Tim Cook saying: "No, no, we

don't, we don't give our information to
the NSA, we don't do that." We know a

little differently, you know, I mean,
remember these? These are from Snowden. I

mean, this is obvious. Look, it doesn't
say, when we ... well, it does not say,

when the NSA intercepted each of these
dates, when prism collection began for

each provider. They're being called
providers here. The reason they're being

called providers is, because these are the
companies, that are providing the

information to the NSA. So while Tim Cook
can say that he doesn't, you know, well,

while he can say, well, he can say all he
wants about he doesn't, you know, that

they don't involve themselves, we
know otherwise. This is proof. So, you

know, so my whole thing is like, hey, you
know, if the tech companies, if these

organisa..., if these large multinational
tech companies can provide this

information, why can't we do this for
ourselves? Why can't we just put this out

there? And what and why not just put
everything out there, whether it's

relevant or not? And why not just mud up
the whole system? So, you know, I'm

really interested in this idea of like
creating our own archives. Do you know

this building? This is the AT&T data
center in San Francisco at the corner of

2nd and Folsom. This is a project that
they call Hawkeye, which is actually

AT&T's internal code name for this data
center. And shortly before 2007, about a

little over 10 years ago, there were,
there was a whistleblower though, that

came forward. It was in room 641a of this
building, which... Basically, what

happened is: The NSA approached 16 telecom
companies in the US and said: "We'd like

to copy your data stream." And 15 of the
16 said: "Sure, help yourself, you know,

make yourself at home." There's only one
company, that said: "You know. We're not

really sure the legalities of this. Can
you come back with a warrant and tell us

what you're looking for? And we
will provide it to you, if you can tell

us what you want." But you know, you
had, you had 15 of the 16 just say:

"Yeah, go ahead." So what basically, what
happened in, in 2007, not like, who

knows, what it is now. But in 2007 it was
estimated, that there was 213 terabytes

of phone records in this building. Every
phone record of every domestic call in the

US was archived. And then of course
there's multiple data centers. This is

just one of many. Now who does that phone
call belong to? You know, when you're

calling grandma. Does that phone call,
does that information and that phone

call, does that belong to you? Does that
belong to Grandma? Or does that belong to

the phone company and they're licensing
you a one-time use of it? We don't, I

mean again with this... Who
actually owns this data? So I was really

interested in this and keeping it record.
So, I know, you know, while AT&T's

keeping records, which is my
mobile phone provider in the US.

Similarly, I'm keeping my own records.
And this is all my, this is my log files

of all the people that come by on my
website. And you can see all of the folks.

Let me show you a little bit cleaner
version. And you can see all the

lovely happy people, that come by, like,
the terrorist screening center of the

Central Intelligence Agency or the, you
know, the National Geospatial-

Intelligence Agency. I don't know why they
come by. I mean, I, I'm glad that they

like art. I'm glad we have patrons of the
arts in, in these organizations. Because,

you know, I mean, like, they come by
frequently enough. I'm not really sure

what they're doing. But I'm glad, I'm
glad they like what I do. But, so, I

really have to thank one particular
person for making my art career possible.

And that would be Dick Cheney. Because if
it was not for Dick Cheney, I would not

be here talking to you. None of this would
be possible without Dick Cheney. I mean,

really, I mean, you know, he's really
responsible for a lot of things that have

happened recently. So thank you, Dick
Cheney. If you're, if you're listening,

which you probably are, because you know
everything and you are, you know, you have

your people. Anyway. So a few years ago,
I said, well, about 2010 I moved to the, I

start–, I took a job at the University of
Maryland, which is in College Park. When I

say Maryland, most people assume we're in
Baltimore. Because that's the main city

in Maryland. But we're actually closer to
Washington DC. So you can see, so there's

College Park, that's, that's where I work.
This is the FBI headquarters. This is the

CIA. This is the NSA. You triangulate the
three, it ends up on my campus. So it's

only appropriate, you know, it's, and
plus, you know, we have this budget

problem in the US right now. So I'm,
like, helping them out. It's like, you

know: "Guys, can I help you, guys? Can I
help you out by moving in like right next

to you, so you don't have to waste your
resources?" By the way, vice.com ranked

us "The Most Militarized University In
America". We're number one. And then

we're not number one at football or
anything. It takes a while for that sort

of stuff. But most militarized, that's
pretty easy. We can do that. Let me show

you a little bit about ... So it's an
amazing place. DC is, Washington DC is a

great place to be. Problem is, real estate
is really, really, really expensive. Like

housing is really, you know, it's a
company town. I mean, like, why else would

you need to live there unless, you know,
you're working in government? So while,

you know, real estate prices in other
parts of the country go up and down,

Washington just keeps going up and up and
up and up and up. So, you know, it's been

good. But then I found this piece of land
in St. Michael's. Now if you look over

here, it says, the average listing price
in the zip code, which is the, the postal

code in that area, is 797303 dollars. This
was back in 2010. You know, 800000

dollars at that time average. And then I
found this piece of land for only 74000

bucks. I was like: "I want this. I want
this. I want this. I'm gonna ..." I know,

it's like I need to do something. And
it's about an hour and a half away from

work, which is a bit ... But, you know,
it's possible. Anyway, so this is where

the house is over there. It goes
further up. So it's a piece of land, it's a

beautiful place. I mean, you see the
nature and all that. It's that weird

oblong shape over there. You see that
little driveway with the nice trees and

that house in the water? That belongs to
this guy.

slight laughter in the audience
So, and let me take you around the

neighborhood for a little bit. So
this is, this is his gate. This is his

driveway. He drives up this way. He
has a five car garage. Two of those

garages go back pretty deep. This is
swimming pool. We're gonna hang out here

over the summers, hang out, you know,
we'd gonna throw some parties. This is his

front room. This is his kitchen. This is
where he sleeps. And this is where we're

gonna plot world domination. We're gonna
hang out and eat yellowcake up there. So

this is the place. I'm hoping to
build this. This is what I was trying to

build. But the listing just kind of
disappeared. It literally just

disappeared. And I'm convinced it's, so,
you know, it's like he kind of does that

to people, too. I'm glad he just did it to
the listening and not to me. But, you

know, it wasn't withdrawn, it wasn't
sold, it just like disappeared. So these

days, it has become like this really
conceptual project, where I'm actually

painting them. And then I'm photographing
the paintings. So this is what I'm

actually showing. So, you know,
it's... So, okay. Here's my thing. So,

look, here's a man, Dick Cheney, with not
only are you dealing with the former vice

president. You're dealing with the former,
you deal with the former CEO of

Halliburton. Like every ... This man has
every motivation to be secret. This man,

money is no object. And yet, if I can show
you, where he sleeps and where he eats

and where he swims, I mean, what can he
know about us? I mean, I'm completely

self-trained in this. I'm not even, I'm
not even like, you know, I'm not even like

that, that tech-savvy in this. I mean, I
just kind of, just like duct-tape things

together to find things, whatever I
needed. But what do entire companies and

corporations and countries, that really
have the motivation to dig through our

information, what can they get about us?
So I'd like to leave you with this, that,

you know, we really need to come up with
a different idea and a different

interpretation and a different meaning of
what privacy in the 21st century means.

This is no longer, we can no longer
afford to use the same definitions

of privacy that we used 50 years ago. Or
a hundred years ago. Or 200 years ago. Or

even just five years ago or even just last
week. We need to have a much more

adaptive and open idea what this means to
us. And for each of us, this will mean,

mean something differently. So I want to
leave you with that. And thank you very

much and I'm happy to take some
questions.

applause
Herald: Thank you, Hasan.

Hasan: Thank you! Welcome!
Herald: It's a fantastic adventure to be

always on the run and at the same time,
actually, yeah, they're running for you

now.
Hasan: A little bit. They come by. You

know, I try to be friends with them.
Herald: Yeah, that's good.

Hasan: You know, they're not, they're
actually not that, they're not very, they

don't like, they don't want to be friends.
They just like, they just like to watch

from a distance.
Herald: You think that Dick Cheney will

allow parties at your house?
Hasan: I'm trying. Yeah. We're gonna have

a shooting range in the back
Herald: Like it's good.

Hasan: Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun.

Herald: I'm looking forward.
Hasan: Do you have a question?

Q: Yeah, thanks for the talk. You
mentioned ways that you are ... kind of

anticipated things that now we kind of
take very common. Is there any way in

which your art practice has evolved or
responded to having a newer, younger

generation of students year over year in
your classes, for whom Instagram or selfie

sticks might be just second nature to
them?

Hasan: Yeah. You know, I think it's
really interesting watching how people of

different generations react to this.
Because, you know, I think a lot of it

also has to do with the way we
communicate. I mean, there was a very

specific generation that would write a
letter. And then you had a generation

that would write, you know, that would
call. And then you have text. And then

you have people that write you over email.
And you have people that will only text

you. I mean, we were seeing that and
we're, and, and we're actually living in

that right now. Because we actually deal
with certain different types of people

that only deal with different modes of
communication. So I really think in, that

it's ... The interesting thing is though
that time is compressed. Because we've

only had people that communicate over
writing for hundreds of years. Then we

would have people that only communicated
and phoned for maybe 30 to 50, maybe a

little longer. And then, now we only have
that like in the last 5 years we've had

this. And then now, down to like one year.
So who knows what the next method will

be? But I really think a lot of it has to
do with this adaptation. I think a lot of

the things really interesting is this
idea of like, like migration and, you

know, the whole immigration topics are
some real hot topic politically right now.

But I think we also need to think
about this from a digital perspective.

Because, you know, we turn, we tend to use
the word digital native a lot. But we

never actually use the word digital
immigrant. But yet that's all of us in

some way. I mean, very few of us...
I mean there, yes, there are

certain, there is a certain generation
that is 100% digital from day one. But

for most of us, at least of a certain
age, we are all digital immigrants. And I

think that, that type of shift, I think
that type of understanding of it, I think

it has an impact and particularly
in terms of dealing with

learning and dealing with education, you
know. At what point is it a natively

learned skill versus a naturalised, a
migratory type of an action. So. Hopefully

that answers that you're talking about,
yeah. Do you have another question? ...

Yeah?
Q: Just ... have they ever asked

you to stop?
Hasan: No, no there's no law against

talking too much. Because if there was a
law against talking too much, we'd all be

in trouble. But you know, but this is
interesting. Because they're very much

about, there ... It's very much a
one-way direction. They're not about,

they don't editorialize, they don't
provide opinion. They only take

information. They ask you questions and
they take information. So you could answer

them with one word or you could answer
them with millions. And I've just decided

that I'm gonna keep talking, keep
talking to them. I'm a relatively, you

know, I think cooperative person. I'd like
to be helpful, you know. But really, what

it is, it's really, it's, defiance
through compliance. It's

this level of aggressive compliance. And
at a certain point, I try to be so

helpful, that I'm completely not
helpful at all.

slight laughter in the audience
So thank you, thank you for the question.

applause
Herald: Thank you very much. Is there, is

there ... Oh, there's a question from the
internet!

Hasan: No, oh, okay. Nobody else? Okay,
great.

Herald: Is there an FBI agent in there to
have a drink, maybe?

Hasan: Yeah that'd be great. Yeah yeah.
Herald: Why not? Yeah.

Hasan: I'm sure, I'm sure there's people
from some government organization at this

place. So, you know, let's get a drink
later together.

Herald: Okay, let's have one. Thank you
very much!

Hasan: See you guys. Thank you so much,
thanks.

Herald: Don't forget to help us all to
clean this all up.

34C3 Music

subtitles created by c3subtitles.de
in the year 2020. Join, and help us!