What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Surveillance Art?

Artworks generate an experience, one that is distinct from the material realities of surveillance structures, but one that is discursively and politically crucial in the ways they reveal the beliefs, expectations, perceptions, and rationale of why, when, and for whom surveillance operates. What we are talking about when we talk about “surveillance art,” then, is less than a category defined by the visual re-presentation of surveillance-related forms, and more a type of creative experience that forces an encounter between art project and audience to encourage a form of engagement and critical awareness of surveillance contexts.