Trevor Paglen has been named the recipient of this year's Guggenheim LG Award, a prestigious recognition for artists who integrate technology into their work. The award, which comes with a $100,000 prize, was announced by the New York museum on Tuesday. Paglen expressed enthusiasm for the financial support, emphasizing the substantial costs associated with his projects that explore themes of surveillance technology and artificial intelligence.
"This is very expensive work to do," Paglen remarked. "The R&D costs are insane. So this definitely helps me fund a project I didn't know how to fund, one that's pretty expensive. That's really exciting."
Paglen, who gained acclaim as a MacArthur "genius" fellow in 2017, is renowned for his captivating photographs that, on the surface, depict serene skies and abstract landscapes. However, these images cleverly document forms of surveillance that remain hidden from public view. His artistic endeavors also delve into the infrastructure of the internet and the mechanisms through which technology perceives and categorizes the world.
While discussions around AI have surged recently, Paglen has been addressing its implications through art for over a decade. His 2020 series, "Bloom," involved using AI to reinterpret images of flowering trees, applying colors based on undisclosed algorithms. This year, he will publish a book titled How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI.
In discussing his upcoming publication, Paglen stated, "The high-level argument [of the book] is that we've undergone, or are in the middle of undergoing, two revolutions in our relationship to images, each one of which is as significant as the invention of perspective or photography. These revolutions are the rise of computer vision in the 2000s and 2010s, followed by the emergence of generative AI in recent years. Each of these shifts necessitates a reevaluation of how we understand images."
The jury for the Guggenheim LG Award, which included notable figures such as Mori Art Museum director Mami Kataoka and Guggenheim associate curator Noam Segal, commended Paglen as "one of the most influential artists of our time."
"Paglen's sustained commitment to addressing urgent global concerns--through rigorous artistic research, technological subversion, intellectual risk-taking, and engagement with universal subject matter--has resulted in a coherent and distinctive artistic oeuvre," the jury noted. "His works consistently illuminate opaque technologies while challenging dominant corporate narratives and highlighting broader societal and ethical issues."
Paglen is set to host an event at the Guggenheim on May 18, further showcasing his innovative contributions to the intersection of art and technology. He joins the ranks of previous award winners, including Shu Lea Cheang, Stephanie Dinkins, and Ayoung Kim.
