Elahi and Enríquez-Enríquez use various “data bodies” to portray various arguments on U.S. surveillance. Felix Stalder, quoted in Puar’s “Data Bodies,” refers to those data bodies both as a “shadow” and as preceding the user “as an ‘informational doppelganger,’” meaning that they are a data representation of one’s self. Elahi creates for himself a data body in Tracking Transience that both follows and goes against the rules. He made the website to “surveil himself” in response to detainment by the FBI in 2002, and facing the accusation of being a terrorist (Colbert Report).
Elahi’s website follows the “rules” because the FBI requested that he “check in” after being released. Tracking Transience follows every move that he makes, food that he eats, and toilet that he uses. Some might say that he goes above and beyond the request to check in. The way I see it, though, is Elahi’s quiet revolt.
While I can see his location day-by-day, what he had for lunch, or what airline he flew, I cannot see his face, nor anyone else’s. The somewhat obvious reason for a “possible terrorist” to check in is to ensure that he is not performing any terrorist activities. That would include a great need for the “who” of the situation. In this way, Elahi goes against the biopolitics. He makes the information public, taking away the secrecy and, therefore, the value of the information for the FBI.
Elahi’s photographs surpass the individual. A person is shown in none of them, and yet, the viewer can see, given simple cues (e.g. the language on a sign, GPS coordinates, an airline symbol, etc.) where he is and what he is doing. He shows that such information can be expressed without flesh and blood, making race, sex, ethnicity, and sexuality unimportant information.
Observe the following photograph:
(Scotto)
What did you see? From this picture, a person can see that I ate dinner at home tonight. They can see that I opted for water instead of something else, that I did not take the time to cook, and that I opted for an Italian dish. You can also see that I microwaved my dinner right before beginning this blog. A better question, though, is what CAN’T you see? Do you even know that this was my dinner, or that I took this picture? Was it my house, or a friend’s? There is no obvious way to tell. I remain faceless, raceless, genderless; I am a data body in its most complete sense, as I portray no body at all, only information. There are, however, different forms to the data body. Monica Enríquez-Enríquez gives a very different portrayal of such.
In her videos Asilo Queer and Objetos de Memoria, Enríquez-Enríquez taps into the networks of surveillance in a three-dimensional manner, and as Puar points out, it is “viciously intimate” (Puar, 4). In Asilo Queer, the viewer is put in the position of watching the fluid movements of a body, while listening to its story in a Spanglish narrative. I felt uncomfortable during this video when there were things I could not understand. It felt as if I was eavesdropping on a private conversation, and the feeling got only worse when I viewed Objetos de Memoria. I felt as Puar explains, that “the discontinuity is a deliberate rupturing, not simply a missing or missed connection, but an intimate, brutal almost-but-no kind of taunting” (Puar, 4). I can see the image, I can read the scripts, but I cannot necessarily know what the message is. In this way, Enríquez-Enríquez beats the biopolitical system, at least in the U.S. Using interviews and creative filming, she creates a data body for lesbian Latina women, which is expressed outside of the immediate understanding of the viewer. In this way, she and her subjects stay outside surveillance, the same way that Elahi does with Tracking Transience.
Works Cited
Colbert, Stephen. "Hasan Elahi." The Colbert Report. Comedy Partners. 2010. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/167606/may-07- 2008/hasan- elahi
Elahi, Hasan. Tracking Transience. www.trackingtransience.com
Enríquez-Enríquez, Monica. Asilo Queer.http://danm.ucsc.edu/~mpenriqu/home.html
Enríquez-Enríquez, Monica. Objetos de Memoria. http://danm.ucsc.edu/~mpenriqu/home.html
Puar, Jasbir. "Data Bodies." Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham: Duke University Press. 2007.
The blog brings up great points! I absolutely love the fact that you’ve decided to do your own Elahi “aggressive compliance” picture, but what strikes me more, is the point you bring up about the “unseen.” In your argument I find myself also questioning: where the picture was taken, who the dinner is for, who took the picture, etc. I think it is in this questioning of the unseen that a new argument of a speculative militarized citizen comes into play. We are always questioning and basing theories on pre-set data. I wonder, did you even take this picture? Great job.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the abscence of certain information, for example people's faces, in both of these artists' work I cannot but think about, as you mentioned, what is being left out of the frame. Furthermore, who does that information belong to, or rather, who knows that information. I think, like your article points to in being left out of Enriquez's videos, is that the info left out of our gaze is only known to those involved, and in a way this creates a sense of privacy for them. So at the same time these might a type of surveillance both artists achieve a level of intimacy and yet privacy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the last two posts. Your own personal example and the absence of information that goes along with Ealhi’s example it is solid. When I was viewing Elahi’s website, I just assumed that everything he was showing pertained to him – which could be true. But in all actuality, he could be taking shots of other people’s food or bathrooms that he didn’t actually use. How would anybody know if he wasn’t?
ReplyDeleteFurthering agreement. I loved the Elahi-style photo, but most of all, I liked the title. Both Hasan Elahi and Monica Enriquez-Enriquez created pieces which are "aggressively intimate" in nature. The Kissing Point highlights the closeness, the tension which comes from the "brutal almost-but-no." We, as the viewer are told that every time we long to even see a hand in one of Elahi's photographs or a face in Eriquez-Enriquez's piece.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in saying that Elahi's response to detainment and being considered a terrorist was following the rules- however i wouldnt say that he went against them. Elahi may have gone overboard with hisinformation sharing and i agree with you served as a way for him to "quietly revolt", however, he didnt go against any rules. I believe that was the best part of his resistance- the fact that he learned how to express his discontent by doing litereally what was asked for him- reminds me of killing them with kindness (haha) i also found it very interesting that although he documented his every move- he never put a face to his whereabouts or his personal interactions. That is what really clicked with me- especially when aligning his situation with "data bodies".
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