b. 1975 in the USA
Paglen lives and works in Berkeley, California. He is an artist, writer, and experimental geographer working out of the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. His work involves deliberately blurring the lines between social science, contemporary art, and a host of even more obscure disciplines to construct unfamiliar, yet meticulously researched ways to interpret the world around us. His work has recently been exhibited at Transmediale.08 Festival, Berlin; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, 2007; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, 2007 and Kunstraum Munich, 2006. Paglen’s first book, 'Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights' (co-authored with A.C. Thompson, published by Melville House, 2006) was the first book to systematically describe the CIA’s ‘extraordinary rendition’ programme. His second book, 'I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me' (Melville House, 2007) is an examination of the visual culture of ‘black’ military programmes.