Name Hasan Elahi | Role Artist | |
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Born 1972 (age 42–43) Rangpur, Bangladesh Known for Interdisciplinary Art, Professor | ||
Hiding in Plain Sight: Hasan Elahi at TEDxVilnius
Hasan M. Elahi (born 1972) is a Bangladeshi-born American interdisciplinary media artist with an emphasis on technology and media and their social implications. His research interests include issues of surveillance, sousveillance, simulated time, transport systems, and borders and frontiers.
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He was born in Rangpur and raised in New York City.
Sousveillance
As presented in a panel discussion on "Sousveillance-Culture" led by Marisa Olson, Curator and Editor of Rhizome, with Panelists: Amy Alexander, Jill Magid and Hasan Elahi, Elahi has put his entire life online. Wired magazine reports:
Poke around his site and you'll find more than 20,000 images stretching back three years. Elahi has documented nearly every waking hour of his life during that time. He posts copies of every debit card transaction, so you can see what he bought, where, and when. A GPS device in his pocket reports his real-time physical location on a map.
Elahi's site is the perfect alibi. Or an audacious art project. Or both. The Bangladeshi-born American says the US government mistakenly listed him on its terrorist watch list — and once you're on, it's hard to get off. To convince the Feds of his innocence, Elahi has made his life an open book. Whenever they want, officials can go to his site and see where he is and what he's doing. Indeed, his server logs show hits from the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, and the Executive Office of the President, among others.
Exhibitions
He recently was invited to speak about his work at the Tate Modern, Einstein Forum, and at the American Association of Artificial Intelligence. His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions at venues such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, Sundance Film Festival, Kassel Kulturbahnhof, The Hermitage, and at the Venice Biennale. His work has been supported with significant grants and numerous sponsorships from the Creative Capital Foundation, Ford Foundation/Philip Morris, and the Asociación Artetik Berrikuntzara in Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Country/ Spain.
Faculty positions
Elahi is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, and director of the Digital Cultures and Creativity Honors program. He previously taught at San Jose State University; Rutgers; the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida; West Virginia University; Wanganui School of Design, in Wanganui, New Zealand; and also in Houston, Texas.
