Aerial Auto-Surveillance

"And Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free."
--Inscription in foyer of CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia

For a number of years, I’ve worked on projects that relate, both directly and obliquely, to the United States intelligence community and attendant issues such as surveillance, secrecy, deception and violence. The Central Intelligence Museum is a ten-year documentary project that includes about 50 images intended to confront some of the more ridiculous aspects of the history of the "Company" (as the CIA refers, internally, to itself). Borrowing the conventions and implicit authority of historical-museum display, these “cutaway” views represent objects that may or may not exist. I fabricated and then photographed the objects based on technical descriptions and/or schematic drawings of equipment produced by the Central Intelligence Agency's Technical Services Division. I acquired this information from a variety of sources, including books published by many former CIA case officers such as John Stockwell and Phillip Agee. In effort to discourage the unauthorized de-facto production of these items based upon the photographs, some information was deliberately altered. Half-way though the project I moved beyond the secondary sources and began to invent the objects entirely.

My interest in mirrored realities evolved into the more recent Aerial Auto-Surveillance project. This work consists of digital photographs (Lightjet C-prints and Quad-black inkjet prints) and short DVD video projection pieces documenting very large latex balloons that support aerial surveillance equipment. This work toys with the perception of documentary truth. For example, in one phase of this work, I made models—based on actual satellite images of my home, studio, and workplace. I then photographed the models so that they appeared to be photographs of the actual sites. Furthermore, I crafted dummy cameras that, for the exhibition of the work, I asserted were the actual devices that made the images. I am trying to confound the viewer by exploiting their willingness to accept technologically mediated reality.

Actionable Intelligence, my most recent work, represents a flat-footed attempt to invert (symbolically, anyway) the lens of the global surveillance apparatus. Small-scale models of the homes of high-ranking members of the current and previous Bush Administrations--based on satellite images—float clumsily around the room--bumping into each other, tethered to large mylar balloons and suspended beneath crudely constructed wireless video cameras. The “live” video image, received and displayed in an adjoining room on small monitors, is convincing—or at least compelling--in its grainy, abbreviated description. The fragile and hermetic relationship amongst the object of surveillance, the observer, and the mediating technology in this work mirrors the deeply flawed and politicized contemporary process by which intelligence is gathered, analyzed, and utilized.

In all my work, there is an acknowledgement that art (and, hence, the artist) does not exist in a vacuum—that cultural and political imperatives often inform our work in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. The ongoing critique of authoritarian power embedded in my work is more than metaphor or allegory. It is an authentic response to the situation in which my studio practice exists. It is more compulsive than calculating and is, in that sense at least, the truth.

--Danny Goodwin, 2005

Artist's Statement
	"And Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." --Inscription in foyer of CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia For a number of years, I’ve worked on projects that relate, both directly and obliquely, to the United States intelligence community and attendant issues such as surveillance, secrecy, deception and violence. The Central Intelligence Museum is a ten-year documentary project that includes about 50 images intended to confront some of the more ridiculous aspects of the history of the "Company" (as the CIA refers, internally, to itself). Borrowing the conventions and implicit authority of historical-museum display, these “cutaway” views represent objects that may or may not exist. I fabricated and then photographed the objects based on technical descriptions and/or schematic drawings of equipment produced by the Central Intelligence Agency's Technical Services Division. I acquired this information from a variety of sources, including books published by many former CIA case officers such as John Stockwell and Phillip Agee. In effort to discourage the unauthorized de-facto production of these items based upon the photographs, some information was deliberately altered. Half-way though the project I moved beyond the secondary sources and began to invent the objects entirely. My interest in mirrored realities evolved into the more recent Aerial Auto-Surveillance project. This work consists of digital photographs (Lightjet C-prints and Quad-black inkjet prints) and short DVD video projection pieces documenting very large latex balloons that support aerial surveillance equipment. This work toys with the perception of documentary truth. For example, in one phase of this work, I made models—based on actual satellite images of my home, studio, and workplace. I then photographed the models so that they appeared to be photographs of the actual sites. Furthermore, I crafted dummy cameras that, for the exhibition of the work, I asserted were the actual devices that made the images. I am trying to confound the viewer by exploiting their willingness to accept technologically mediated reality. Actionable Intelligence, my most recent work, represents a flat-footed attempt to invert (symbolically, anyway) the lens of the global surveillance apparatus. Small-scale models of the homes of high-ranking members of the current and previous Bush Administrations--based on satellite images—float clumsily around the room--bumping into each other, tethered to large mylar balloons and suspended beneath crudely constructed wireless video cameras. The “live” video image, received and displayed in an adjoining room on small monitors, is convincing—or at least compelling--in its grainy, abbreviated description. The fragile and hermetic relationship amongst the object of surveillance, the observer, and the mediating technology in this work mirrors the deeply flawed and politicized contemporary process by which intelligence is gathered, analyzed, and utilized. In all my work, there is an acknowledgement that art (and, hence, the artist) does not exist in a vacuum—that cultural and political imperatives often inform our work in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. The ongoing critique of authoritarian power embedded in my work is more than metaphor or allegory. It is an authentic response to the situation in which my studio practice exists. It is more compulsive than calculating and is, in that sense at least, the truth. --Danny Goodwin, 2005