University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture
1000 Hilltop Circle
Fine Arts Building
105 Baltimore, MD 21250
T +1 410 455 3188
Published on the occasion of the internationally traveling exhibition, this publication explores the unique roles Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen play as meticulous observers of global military operations. Investigating forms of surveillance, espionage, war-making, and weaponry, Farocki and Paglen both examine the deceptive and clandestine ways in which such military activities transform, and politicize, our relationship to images and the realities they appear to represent. In exploring these issues, the publication initiates critical questions about the crucial part images play in revealing essential but largely concealed information affecting civilian life. Furthermore, it places the oeuvres of the artists within the broader cultural and historical developments of the media they are creatively working with, namely photography and film.
The book contains a number of newly commissioned essays by esteemed scholars who approach the work from diverse thematic perspectives, in addition to texts by Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen, as well as three exclusive visual essays exploring themes emerging from a dialogue between their works.
Published by the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, UMBC, Baltimore.
Edited by Niels Van Tomme.
Texts by Jimena Canales, Harun Farocki, Jonathan Kahana, Trevor Paglen, Hilde Van Gelder, and Niels Van Tomme.
Design by Jeroen Wille, Luc Derycke, Ruud Ruttens, Studio Luc Derycke.
Distributed by D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers.
To purchase the book online: www.artbook.com.
Traveling exhibition
After an initial presentation at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, the CADVC is organizing an international tour of the exhibition through December 2016.
Visibility Machines: Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen is on view at:
Akademie der Künste
Berlin, Germany
September 17–December 14, 2014
Presented at Schwindel der Wirklichkeit
Gallery 400, University of Illinois
Chicago, IL
January 16–March 7, 2015
Be-Part
Waregem, Belgium
November 2015–January 2016
For inquiries and more information, please contact Symmes Gardner at [email protected].
Visibility Machines: Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen is curated by Niels Van Tomme and organized by the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC. Generous support is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, the Goethe-Institut Washington, DC, the Baltimore County Commission on Art and Sciences, and the Maryland State Arts Council.
The project is dedicated to the memory of Harun Farocki, 1944–2014.
