Liminal Documents, 2008
Liminal Documents: Between Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib is a 144 page artist book in two volumes containing maps, transcripts, images and more. It was the result of over two years of research into online archives and the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) process for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) prison.
The first, gray volume contains documents establishing the CSRT process for Guantanamo detainees, the CSRT transcript of detainee ISN 100BZ— a fabricated detained created using redacted transcripts from several, real detainee transcripts—and a series of fourteen classified and unclassified government exhibits lettered ‘R.’ The second, orange volume holds the documents of detainee ISN 100BZ and exhibits labeled with the letter ‘D.’
When this project was created in 2008, it was guided by a few facts:
1. The lack of images of people in or around these CSRT spaces. Online archives— many of which now no longer exist— documenting GTMO and the CSRT spaces contained pages of empty rooms and prison spaces with only faint traces of people: cups, dusty board games, metal brackets to shackle prisoners in place. The process and those involved was highly secretive, nearly invisible.
2. The lack of documents, especially unredacted documents about the CSRT process. There were no complete files that could explain the process or the evidence. There were redacted audio and PDF files available online, but they left many things unexplained.
3. Metadata and online evidence. Extrajudicial rendition could be documented with flight logs.
Before I turned to art, I received my BA in Philosophy, and my artist's book ends with a full bibliography of the many sources that informed my creation + reading— most notably Jacques Lacan, Giorgio Agamben, and Elaine Scarry— and recreation of these archival documents into something tangible that could tell a more complete story about these liminal, extrajudicial spaces.
One closing note— one that seems especially important 10 years later in our current climate of fake news and alternative facts— is that at the time I created this project I placed it online without extensive explanation. I wanted it to be found and read as an artifact. At the time, it was found and I was contacted by someone editing the CSRT articles on Wikipedia and asked to contribute + collaborate. Interestingly, this was the same person that had removed any and all edits I had attempted to contribute to those articles. When I replied to this person explaining that that they'd already removed my contributions and that these documents were recreated using the same sources I had attempted to make more accessible though editing Wikipedia, they replied that they were apologetic and 'genuinely disturbed by the impression they'd left.' To this day, that exchange reminds me that people will always and have always had a difficult time agreeing on 'facts' and Truth with a capital T even when looking at the same materials and objects.
If you're interested in exploring the documents and reading the full texts in more depth, you can request the complete PDF using the contact form.
The first, gray volume contains documents establishing the CSRT process for Guantanamo detainees, the CSRT transcript of detainee ISN 100BZ— a fabricated detained created using redacted transcripts from several, real detainee transcripts—and a series of fourteen classified and unclassified government exhibits lettered ‘R.’ The second, orange volume holds the documents of detainee ISN 100BZ and exhibits labeled with the letter ‘D.’
When this project was created in 2008, it was guided by a few facts:
1. The lack of images of people in or around these CSRT spaces. Online archives— many of which now no longer exist— documenting GTMO and the CSRT spaces contained pages of empty rooms and prison spaces with only faint traces of people: cups, dusty board games, metal brackets to shackle prisoners in place. The process and those involved was highly secretive, nearly invisible.
2. The lack of documents, especially unredacted documents about the CSRT process. There were no complete files that could explain the process or the evidence. There were redacted audio and PDF files available online, but they left many things unexplained.
3. Metadata and online evidence. Extrajudicial rendition could be documented with flight logs.
Before I turned to art, I received my BA in Philosophy, and my artist's book ends with a full bibliography of the many sources that informed my creation + reading— most notably Jacques Lacan, Giorgio Agamben, and Elaine Scarry— and recreation of these archival documents into something tangible that could tell a more complete story about these liminal, extrajudicial spaces.
One closing note— one that seems especially important 10 years later in our current climate of fake news and alternative facts— is that at the time I created this project I placed it online without extensive explanation. I wanted it to be found and read as an artifact. At the time, it was found and I was contacted by someone editing the CSRT articles on Wikipedia and asked to contribute + collaborate. Interestingly, this was the same person that had removed any and all edits I had attempted to contribute to those articles. When I replied to this person explaining that that they'd already removed my contributions and that these documents were recreated using the same sources I had attempted to make more accessible though editing Wikipedia, they replied that they were apologetic and 'genuinely disturbed by the impression they'd left.' To this day, that exchange reminds me that people will always and have always had a difficult time agreeing on 'facts' and Truth with a capital T even when looking at the same materials and objects.
If you're interested in exploring the documents and reading the full texts in more depth, you can request the complete PDF using the contact form.