Ian Alan Paul
Ian Alan Paul is an American artist and theorist (born 1984) who works with the topics of postnational human rights, nationalist violence, and the alterglobalization movement.
Paul is known for his work as an artist as well as for his political involvement in the alter-globalization movement throughout the beginning of the 21st century.
Biography
Ian Alan Paul was born in San Francisco in 1984. He received his BA at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2007, and a MFA and MA degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2011.
In the early 2000s, Ian participated in many alter-globalization campaigns, including helping to organize summit protests against the G8, G20, and the Olympics. His involvement in these political movements which largely focused on questions of economic justice, migrant justice, and human rights, has greatly influenced his artistic practice. Ian has since taken part in the global Occupy protests in 2012.
Ian is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of California, Santa Cruz in Film and Digital Media and is a lecturer at the University of California, San Diego in the Department Of Visual Arts. His masters thesis was on the topic of border politics and poetics, and is presented as a database essay and can be read online.
Projects
The Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History
In 2012, Paul launched The Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History in collaboration with several other artists. The Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History is a virtual museum located at the former site of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp in Cuba. The museum features an array of contemporary art exhibitions, public programs, and a center for critical studies that are all freely accessible on the institution’s website. The museum was featured in The Atlantic, by the Agence France-Presse, and the Brazilian paper Estadão de São Paulo. Alexis Madrigal, senior editor at The Atlantic, describes the project this way:
- “While creating imaginary entities is a tried-and-true protest technique, its application in this specific case is brilliant. Gitmo is a peculiar invention that only exists thanks to a tangle of legal rulings that allow Americans to pretend that Gitmo is not a part of America, even though it’s governed and controlled by Americans. No one really gets to see the place, as reporters’ and other visitors’ experiences are crafted by the authorities. The detention camp, as a place where people are held and interrogated, remains an imaginary place for all but the prisoners and the national security officials who operate it. The imaginary museum draws its power from this resonance: If Gitmo exists because of one fiction, perhaps it can be closed by another? Or put another (augmented) way, germane to this digital project: if we change Gitmo’s website, can it actually change its physical and legal reality? That’s what the museum’s organizers are hoping.”
The project was the result of large collaboration, with over 25 artists, writers and other volunteers contributing to the project in some way from Europe, North America and South America. Visitors to the museum are invited to plan their trip to Guantanamo Bay, become a member of the museum, apply to be an artist in residence, as well as read about the history of the museum itself.
The Do Not Kill Registry
In 2012, Paul launched The Do Not Kill Registry in response to news that the U.S. was maintaining an active kill list for its drone program. The project was covered by USA Today, Slashdot, and the Toronto Star. The website states:
- "While the use of drones is intentionally not bound by international treaties or constitutional limits, we simultaneously understand the urgent need to develop and enforce new ethical frameworks as drone use becomes more commonplace as a tool of U.S. foreign policy. Through an active collaboration between N.E.D.H.I., the brave pilots and operators of the U.S. drone program, and the American public, we believe that we can find the political and moral solutions needed to both protect the security of the United States while also satisfying the concerns of the broader global community.The Do Not Kill Registry, our first public program, has started us on that path towards new solutions and will help give people around the world the peace of mind urgently needed during these times of escalating drone conflict. While what the future holds for the U.S. drone program remains uncertain, you can rest safely knowing that we will continue to diligently review and monitor the national drone kill list in order to ensure proper cautionary measures are taken while also continuing to take advantage of the military effectiveness of targeted drone strikes on militants around the world."
The website allows users to register as a member of the official registry, as well as read about the controversy surrounding the use of drones in war.
Border Haunt
In 2011, Paul developed "Border Haunt". As part of the online performance on July 15, 2011 organized by Paul, 667 people from 28 different countries participated in the online collective action that targeted the surveillance systems of the U.S.-Mexico border. Participants collected entries from a database that holds the names and descriptions of migrants that died trying to cross the border territory and then sent those entries into a database used to police the border. As a result, the border was conceptually and symbolically haunted for the duration of the one-day action as the border policing structure received over 1,000 reports of deceased migrants attempting to cross the border. Border Haunt was covered by Al Jazeera English and The Bay Citizen.