Laura Poitras's 'Astro Noise' at Whitney Museum Interrogates Post-9/11 Surveillance

Laura Poitras's exhibition 'Astro Noise' at the Whitney Museum of American Art from February 5 to May 1, 2016, critically examines global surveillance systems following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The show, located at 99 Gansevoort Street in New York City, employs visual strategies to implicate government agencies, viewers, and the artist herself within pervasive digital monitoring. One installation, 'O'Say Can You See,' presents dual video projections: one showing Ground Zero onlookers with a distorted National Anthem from the 2001 World Series, while the reverse displays U.S. military interrogations with blurred interrogators and hooded detainees. Another piece, 'Bed Down Location,' features a ceiling-suspended video of time-lapse starscapes interrupted by satellite streaks and drone contrails, accompanied by military radio chatter. A hallway installation includes peepholes revealing leaked documents about surveillance, torture, and disappearances, featuring interviews with former CIA technical director William Binney and former Guantanamo prisoner Murta Kumaz. The exhibition concludes with Poitras's own surveillance files obtained via lawsuit, alongside live infrared footage of viewers in another room and real-time logging of wireless device data from museum visitors. Works incorporate materials leaked by Edward Snowden, including encrypted signals intercepted by British intelligence from Israeli drones over the Mediterranean.