Episode 5: The Art of Security: Artists in the surveillance space

Alongside scholars and concerned journalists, a vibrant artistic movement is emerging to interrogate and intervene in security and surveillance operations. Critical surveillance art can be visually appealing, intensely participatory, and sometimes deeply troubling. In this episode, we feature the work of Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Dries Depoorter, two artists who take different approaches to critical surveillance art.

Read the transcript

Episode Contributors

• Torin Monahan - Executive Producer and Guest
• With the help of Carrie Sanders

Guests

• Torin Monahan is a professor of Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on institutional and cultural transformations enabled by new technologies, with a particular emphasis on surveillance and security programs. He is currently working on a project on critical surveillance art. Find more information about Torin's work here.
• Heather Dewey-Hagborg is an artist and biohacker. She uses art to bring public attention to emerging issues in biotechnology. Heather has a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is a visiting assistant professor of interactive media at NYU Abu Dhabi. See more of Heather's work, including Stranger Visions and T35II, A post-genomic love story, on her website.
• Dries Depoorter is a Belgian artist who addresses themes of privacy, artificial intelligence, surveillance and social media through the creation of interactive installations, apps and games. See more of Dries' work, including Jaywalking here.

Support and Funding for This Episode

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
• Wilfrid Laurier University

This episode was produced by Avery Moore Kloss from Folktale Studio.