Surveillance Culture
2020
Stoneware, oxide wash, tree stumps, microphones, speakers
This work compares human and non-human information networks by creating a hybridized surveillance technology: surveillance mushrooms. Surveillance mushrooms sit quietly and record what they hear. Wind rattling tree limbs. Conversations in passing. Gravel crunching under boots. The mushrooms then pass that sound data through their mycelium network to other mushrooms which play the audio, forming a web of information.
Through surveillance mushrooms, I aim to draw a parallel between surveillance networks and mycelium networks. Just as mushrooms are the only visible part of a fungal network, security cameras are the only fruiting body of a vast, hidden surveillance network. I intend to draw attention to the extent of surveillance networks and the degree to which we are surveilled on a daily basis.
Surveillance cameras are not objective observers. We like to think of photography and video as truth, but cameras re-present the world to us; they create something new. In the case of surveillance networks, cameras change the behavior of the people within their view. All networks exist for a reason. Mycelium networks circulate nutrients and chemical signals so that the larger organism can thrive. Surveillance networks transmit human behavior to exert control over their subjects. In much the same way, surveillance mushrooms are not just re-presenting the sound unaltered. Rather, sound is warped by the mushroom bodies so that the microphones hidden inside collect a new soundscape.
Observing is not inherently bad. As an artist I watch all the time. However, surveillance is distinct from mere observation in virtue of its manipulative quality. Foucault warned us about this in his writings on the panopticon. I have internalized the fact that I am always watched and I subconsciously alter my behavior. Additionally, when surveillance networks exist in a capitalist structure, my behavior is deliberately modified by companies, such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple, to make a profit.
The manipulation that surveillance enables is harmful in that it alters my sense of identity and restricts my freedom. It is a matter of reclaiming agency. Surveillance mushrooms help viewers notice when they are being watched. It is only in virtue of knowing when you are observed that you can make a decision of whether to change your behavior or not.
Like mushroom hunting, once you begin surveillance hunting, cameras appear everywhere.