Have you ever thought
Of being watched?
Of being surveilled?
Propositions: An Open Call, by Reliable Copy in conjunction with Ark Foundation for the Arts, was for
a workshop with the NYU professor Deepak Unnikrishnan on the subject, ‘The Observer’.
Spread over 4 weeks, this was a deep dive in multiple backgrounds & minds coming together to understand the impact of surveillance on our minds as an individual & as a collective.
With my design background, my interpretation was a Visual project that drew references from Michel Foucault’s Panopticism & Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media.
a workshop with the NYU professor Deepak Unnikrishnan on the subject, ‘The Observer’.
Spread over 4 weeks, this was a deep dive in multiple backgrounds & minds coming together to understand the impact of surveillance on our minds as an individual & as a collective.
With my design background, my interpretation was a Visual project that drew references from Michel Foucault’s Panopticism & Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media.
METHOD
Taking X-Rays of my body as base;
1. Blue- Movement/Travel/Outdoor searches
2. Green- Finance /Job/Industry searches
3. Yellow- Random/Disconnected searches
4. Pink- Arts (Museums, Practitioners, Design, Music) searches
5. Red- Anthropological searches
6. Cyan- Fashion/Lifestyle searches
MEDIUM: Research | Design Exploration
TYPE: Commercial
YEAR: 2021-22
RECOGNISED: Select Open Call of 10 people between India & Middle East
TYPE: Commercial
YEAR: 2021-22
RECOGNISED: Select Open Call of 10 people between India & Middle East
DEC 2017
DEC 2021
Naked & Redacted
If I map through the years, how much will i get to know about myself?
But while i learn in retrospect, you learnt in prediction.
When human created an axe, it was to make a more powerful extension of the hand.
Similarly, the wheel was an elongation of the leg.
Everything created is thus to extend an existing ability of self.
So what does this mean for me, for humankind in today’s world?
I start by asking, “How is it impacting my sensory?”
Could I say, I am feeling everything through seeing?
Is the visual the moderator of speech rather than an auditory source.
Now that am seeing what I want to eat, seeing what I want to hear, seeing what I smell, seeing what I want to see:
Does it imply a transference?
Of my organs to the digital universe?
And with such absolutes, am I in override?
Because everything is instant, I am reactive instantly.
When I am instant, I will chase and be constantly deprived.
When I am constantly deprived, I am open to manipulation.
Once we know, only then can we really have the language to question.
But now that you have my organs ever-so annealed in me, can I ever turn you off?
After all the panoptic tower is opaque*
Because everything is instant, I am reactive instantly.
When I am instant, I will chase and be constantly deprived.
When I am constantly deprived, I am open to manipulation.
Once we know, only then can we really have the language to question.
But now that you have my organs ever-so annealed in me, can I ever turn you off?
After all the panoptic tower is opaque*
*Michel Foucault’s book: Discipline & Punish
- In his book, he used the Panopticon as a metaphor for how power operates in modern societies, arguing that institutions like prisons, schools, and hospitals function through a system of constant surveillance and normalization.
- It is originally derived from a circular prison design where a guard, at the center (a tall tower) could observe all prisoners from atop, without being seen.
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