Laura Poitras (b. 1964), “ANARCHIST”: Data Feed with Doppler Tracks from a Satellite (Intercepted May 27, 2009), 2016, Pigmented inkjet print mounted on aluminum, 45 × 64 3/4 inch (1143 × 1645 mm), Courtesy the artist

Whitney Museum of American Art is having an exhibition “Laura Poitras: Astro Noise“. It is the first solo museum exhibition by artist, filmmaker, and journalist Laura Poitras. This immersive installation of new work builds on topics important to Poitras, including mass surveillance, the war on terror, the U.S. drone program, Guantánamo Bay Prison, occupation, and torture.

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Some of these issues have been investigated in her films, including “Citizenfour”, a documentary about Edward Snowden which won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary, and in her reporting, which was awarded a 2014 Pulitzer Prize.

The exhibition expands on her project to document post–9/11 America, engaging visitors in formats outside her non-fiction filmmaking. The title, “Astro Noise”, refers to the faint background disturbance of thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang and is the name Edward Snowden gave to an encrypted file containing evidence of mass surveillance by the National Security Agency that he shared with Poitras in 2013. The Snowden archive partially inspired Poitras’s presentation at the Whitney.

Laura Poitras “Astro Noise”
Date: February 5th – May 1st, 2016

Open: 11:00 – 18:00 (Friday 13:00 – 21:00)

Closed on Monday and Tuesday
Place: Whitney Museum of American Art
Address: 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY 10014

Admission: 18$

Tel: +1 212 570 3600

https://whitney.org