
From June to November of 2002, Hasan Elahi had been the subject of a FBI
investigation as a terrorist suspect. He was reported to the police as “an
Arab man that had explosives who fled on September 12”. As he returned to
the US on June 19, he was met at the airport by a FBI agent who rigorously
interrogated him on his whereabouts and activities. Elahi spent the next
six months frequently meeting FBI agents justifying each and every move
that he made around 9/11. After repeated questionings and nine consecutive
polygraphs, he was eventually cleared is officially no longer considered a
terrorist threat.
In 2003 the artist started developing a mobile phone application which in
fact opens just about every aspect of his life to the public. This
application generates a database of imagery and locative information that
combined with a web companion tracks him and his points of transit live.
Since the development of this, his FBI agent (along with everyone else on
the web) has been able to look him up online to track him. Archived along
with a database of over 40,000 images mapping his location since 2004, also
available is a wide range of information from financial data, communication
records and transportation logs to information of a more personal nature
such as images of what he has eaten, where he slept and even which toilets
he used. Elahi attempts to subvert the methodology that is used by
intelligence agencies where the main commodity is secrecy and restricted
access to information.