Blog - Artist on The Colbert Report - No Jokes Here

2008-05-09 13:54:46

From ArtFagCity.com
Artist Hasan Elahi on The Colbert Report

Screengrab AFC
Art Fag City announces the launch of a new initiative today; tracking artists who appear on the Colbert Report . The second artist investigating systems of surveillance to appear on the show within the
space of a month, Hasan Elahi spoke with Steven Colbert about his
website Tracking Transience. The site sends the government daily pictures of his whereabouts, what
he’s eating, and even how he’s spending his money to ensure that
officials don’t mistake him as a terrorist. A response to being
detained by the FBI for suspicion of hoarding explosives in 2002, Elahi
explains, “Intelligent forces no matter where they are all operate in a
community where their commodity is information, and the reason that
information has value is because no one else has access to that
information…so the secrecy of that information is what makes it
valuable…so by me disclosing all this information [it becomes
worthless]”
Of course, the other reason the information he provides has so
little meaning is that the site is full of pop up windows and scrolling
images making it impossible to navigate. But whatever. Elahi tells
Steven Colbert he’s seen a EOP.gov address in his sitemeter, which
means he’s had the eyes of the President on his site. “You’ve got a
fan!” replies Colbert, which immediately prompted the web professional
in me to wonder about the duration of his visit.
Hasan Elahi’s work is currently on view at Artist’s Space in the exhibition The New Normal .



click here to read the whole story