Surveillance Opening Reception

An Exhibition of Work on the Observation and Storage of Human Activity
by Daniel Newman + Keith Hartwig

Prevailing political sensibilities would have you believe the willingness of a populace to be surveilled is simply gauged along a linear pendulum that swings between privacy and security. Yet, critical examination shows issues surrounding the observation and mass recording of human activity are not as simple, or as conceptually polarized as we are led to believe.

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On display are multiple works. Some explore the origin of our nonchalance towards surveillance brought about through observational technologies' appropriation of the language and semiotics of popular entertainment. Others look at the timeline of reasons we, as a society, gave our consent to be observed. Even the nature of urban form is examined; cites are digitally reassembled as constructs of information collected through the electronic watch of local authorities.