Tilting Against the Death Machine

UC researcher and gallivanting gonzo provocateur Trevor Paglen brushes the desert dust off his cowboy boots and strides in with a saddlebag full of investigative bombshells about covert military complexes. Reverse-engineering a telescope lens onto the front of his video camera, Paglen probes the perimeter of Area 51, the Tonopah Test Range, and other off-limit “black project” facilities in the no-zones of Nevada. He reports in experimental lecture mode, his “tele-photographic” evidence appearing as both investigative journalism and as revelatory objects of art. Bruce Gagnon’s Arsenal advances a compelling argument for a courageous resistance against the masters of war who would infest the heavens with their Death Stars. PLUS Megan Prelinger–Shaw’s Atomic Cabinet, from her marvelous Library.