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Art Gossip for Sunday, February 10

January 22, 2013 Art | Maryland Center for Humanities Research | College of Arts and Humanities | Digital Cultures & Creativity

Hasan Elahi On Digital Privacy

UMD art professor and director of DCC to open exhibit in Baltimore.

By Julie Scharper, Baltimore Sun

A rumpled pile of sheets. A Bloody Mary on an airline tray. Bags of mustard greens from a Korean grocery store. Gas station pumps, battered street signs, a steamed crab.

These are among the everyday images encountered by artist and University of Maryland, College Park professor Hasan Elahi. For the past decade — since he was detained by the FBI at an airport — Elahi has meticulously compiled tens of thousands of photos of each stop he makes in his day.

Rather than shy from government attention, Elahi embarked on a self-surveillance project. He maps his location on a website, along with photos of beds on which he has slept, lots where he has parked and meals he has eaten.

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