On the border between arts and surveillance studies, this book analyzes the technopolitical role of new "machines vision" and considers sousveillance as a democratic counter-power.
At a time when surveillance is becoming commonplace, digital technologies seem to serve an "anti-social" policy. Under the guise of shared vigilance, states have adopted increasingly intrusive technologies: video surveillance, data surveillance, drones, biometrics, geolocation, facial recognition, RFID, etc. In this context, artists and citizen associations are joining forces to develop counter-fires, to regain control or to reverse the roles of the surveillants/supervised.
Jean-Paul Fourmentraux, socio-anthropologist (PhD) and art critic (AICA), is a professor at the University of Aix-Marseille and a member of the Norbert Elias Center at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). He is the author of several books on digital (counter-)cultures.
