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<\/a>However, my disappointment quickly faded into excitement as Paglen began describing his most recent project: The Last Pictures<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 He dramatically shut off all the lights in the auditorium; forcing us to focus on the projected images he began filtering through.\u00a0 The concept of this project was to document and preserve a vision of the world today, a vision that would be sent into space on a satellite with a one in a million chance that someone or something might see it centuries from now and get a glimpse back in time.\u00a0 Rather than focusing on modern geographical censorship, as Paglen often does, he decided to tackle the mysteries encrypted into the geography of time.\u00a0 Time can naturally censor truths, events, or any documentation of the past.\u00a0 Think about it: how many things have people (or animals) attempted, accomplished, learned or experimented with since the origination of life on Earth?\u00a0 And how many of these experiences can we reflect upon and learn from today?\u00a0 Not many.\u00a0 By sending these pictures into space in this conceptual project, Paglen aims to give a glimpse into the world as we know it today.<\/p>\nPaglen is the first to acknowledge the highly conceptual nature of this project\u2014what are the chances that these pictures, on one of thousands of satellites, will ever be located and viewed?\u00a0 But more importantly, what if these artifacts are located and viewed?\u00a0 What would we want these future beings to know about our lives?\u00a0 Therein lies the fun in this project.\u00a0 Paglen and his group of assistants scoured through millions of pictures and began filtering down their selections.\u00a0 Paglen had the goal of creating an (honest) monument that tells a story: the story of human society.\u00a0 He wanted someone to be able to learn where we came from, what we do, and why we operate this way.\u00a0 What does the gesture of gathering and preserving these photographs mean? Can they mean anything?<\/p>\n
At the conclusion of his presentation, Paglen stopped speaking and allowed us to view every picture he included in The Last Pictures project<\/strong>.\u00a0 There was an amazing mixture of places, people, animals, emotions, and scenes that cannot be described in words.\u00a0 Some were sad, others shocking, and a few were quite comical.\u00a0 However, I found the bigger questions of the entire project to be the most provoking part of Paglen\u2019s presentation:\u00a0 what do we have to show for modern society?\u00a0 What part of our world is important enough to live on through these pictures?\u00a0 How can we defy the censorship of time?<\/p>\n As an Environmental Science major, I strongly connected with Paglen\u2019s view of geological time and the mysteries it creates.\u00a0 So much has happened that we will never know about, and there is so much in the natural and anthropogenic world that we still don\u2019t know about today.\u00a0 However, Paglen\u2019s connection with the audience went beyond science and art\u2014it felt as if he was an old friend.\u00a0 I hardly realized that over an hour and a half went by when we began applauding, and The Last Pictures, as a project and a concept, have lingered in the back of my mind to this day.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to see what Trevor Paglen does next.<\/p>\n For more information on The Last Pictures<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, (just click).<\/p>\n