As part of his training to join the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), Richard Doty was taught how to recruit spies, conduct and resist interrogations, run surveillance operations, and organize and manage deception and disinformation campaigns. After graduation, he was assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM.
(Still from video)
Single channel video projection, black and white, stereo mix
66 min (loop)
During his active years in the late 1970s and 1980s, all sorts of strange, cutting-edge projects were taking place at the airbase. There were experimental laser systems, nuclear weapons programs, highly classified “stealth” aircraft, and other advanced technology demonstrators. Bizarre light shows, unearthly radio transmissions, and impossible-to-explain events became a mainstay in the base’s vicinity. Civilian UFO researchers took notice and began to investigate the goings-on at Kirtland.
Using his training in counterintelligence, deception, and spycraft, Doty would recruit people from the UFO community to act as informants for the Air Force, and to assist him in crafting and spreading disinformation among their ranks as part of his mission to protect Air Force assets.
Doty concedes that the field of UFO research is filled with charlatanism and disinformation, but nonetheless insists on the reality of the phenomenon. Over the course of his intelligence work, Doty describes being “read into” a top-secret program having to do with the US Government’s relationship to the UFO phenomena.
This post is part of a series of posts supporting works from the exhibition You’ve Just Been Fucked by PSYOPS at Pace Gallery, New York.
You can find more information about this project and other posts in the series here.