Reimagining Resistance: Performing Transparency and Anonymity in Surveillance Art

Kafer, Gary

doi:10.24908/ss.v14i2.6005

Cited by 18 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…In fact, in some cases increased data collection actually benefits the individual who uses these tactics. As Kafer (2016) notes, extensive self-surveillance has enabled artist Hasan Elahi to manipulate a narrative of his life that, on the one hand, seems detailed and true, but, on the other hand, leaves just enough pockets and gaps for him to achieve a certain degree of agency. Kafer notes that ‘because Elahi’s GPS coordinates and cell phone photography are only periodically updated, these intermittent updates allow for slippages in the complete disclosure of his activities, such that he could, for example, easily make trips to a storage unit in Florida if he had the chance’ (p. 236).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, two core assumptions that frequently underlie geosurveillance are that (1) data about us is always an accurate representation of ourselves, and that (2) this data can be used to calculate our future actions. The first assumption has been challenged by artist Hasan Elahi, who performed extensive self-surveillance, but did so in a way that allowed him to carefully construct a narrative about his life (Kafer, 2016). In other words, Elahi used the tactic of manipulation (wherein data is specifically crafted to produce an advantageous false narrative) to demonstrate how data about ourselves is malleable and subject to interpretation.…”

Section: Strategies For Resisting Geosurveillancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Resisting geosurveillance: A survey of tactics and strategies for spatial privacy

Swanlund¹,

Schuurman

2018

Progress in Human Geography

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Geosurveillance is continually intensifying, as techniques are developed to siphon ever-increasing amounts of data about individuals. Here we survey three tactics and three strategies for resistance in an attempt to provoke greater discussion about resistance to geosurveillance. Tactics explored include data minimization, obfuscation, and manipulation. Strategies for resisting geosurveillance build upon other forms of resistance and include examination of the assumptions of geosurveillance, investigating privacy-focused software alternatives, and strengthening the ability of activists to operate in this sphere. Individually, each of these are unlikely to effect great change; used in concert, they have the potential to guide technological development in such a way that it is less likely to serve corporate and government interests and more likely to protect individual and group privacy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strategies For Resisting Geosurveillancementioning

confidence: 99%

Resisting geosurveillance: A survey of tactics and strategies for spatial privacy

Swanlund¹,

Schuurman

2018

Progress in Human Geography

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“…The importance of transparent institutions has been a focus of both academic debate and public policies for some time (Kafer 2016). On the one hand, transparency is associated with governmental accountability and legitimacy (Taylor 2011; and discussed as a measure to enhance trust in governments and public institutions (Cucciniello and Nasi 2014;Kim and Lee 2012).…”

Section: The Institutionalist Take On Trust and Surveillance Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance

Viola¹,

Laidler²

2021

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Investigating the theoretical and empirical relationships between transparency and trust in the context of surveillance, this volume argues that neither transparency nor trust provides a simple and self-evident path for mitigating the negative political and social consequences of state surveillance practices.Dominant in both the scholarly literature and public debate is the conviction that transparency can promote better-informed decisions, provide greater oversight, and restore trust damaged by the secrecy of surveillance. The contributions to this volume challenge this conventional wisdom by considering how relations of trust and policies of transparency are modulated by underlying power asymmetries, sociohistorical legacies, economic structures, and institutional constraints. They study trust and transparency as embedded in specific sociopolitical contexts to show how, under certain conditions, transparency can become a tool of social control that erodes trust, while mistrust-rather than trust-can sometimes offer the most promising approach to safeguarding rights and freedom in an age of surveillance.The first book addressing the interrelationship of trust, transparency, and surveillance practices, this volume will be of interest to scholars and students of surveillance studies as well as appeal to an interdisciplinary audience given the contributions from political science, sociology, philosophy, law, and civil society.

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“…For a thorough and critical analysis of these practices of anti-surveillance camouflage, seeMonahan (2015) andKafer (2016).…”

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confidence: 99%

Critical Surveillance Art in the Age of Machine Vision and Algorithmic Governmentality: Three Case Studies

Celis

2020

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This article explores the political dimension of three surveillance artworks: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Level of Confidence (2015), Heather Dewey-Hagborg’s Probably Chelsea (2017), and Trevor Paglen’s Machine Readable Hito (2017). These three artworks deploy new technologies of machine vision and algorithmic face recognition in order to develop a critical account of surveillance. This article’s main hypothesis is that the critical potential of the three selected artworks stems from their ability to render visible a twofold tension that defines contemporary social formations. First, these works nurture a certain ambiguity between two modes of understanding the relation between images and power (representation and performativity), highlighting the difficulties in conceptualising and redefining new critical strategies for artists today. Second, this article highlights the tension between individualisation and personalisation as two parallel tendencies of contemporary power. In this context, the modern notion of political emancipation, grounded mainly on the figure of the individual subject, has to be called into question. The three selected artworks point out the intersection between two logics of power (discipline and governmentality), drawing attention to the limits of the notion of emancipation for a critique of algorithmic face recognition technologies.

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Reimagining Resistance: Performing Transparency and Anonymity in Surveillance Art

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Resisting geosurveillance: A survey of tactics and strategies for spatial privacy

Resisting geosurveillance: A survey of tactics and strategies for spatial privacy

Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance

Critical Surveillance Art in the Age of Machine Vision and Algorithmic Governmentality: Three Case Studies

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