First Advisor

Kristin Hole

Date of Award

2-26-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English and University Honors

Department

English

Language

English

Subjects

Electronic surveillance -- Social aspects, Surveillance in art, Experimental films, Racial profiling in law enforcement

DOI

10.15760/honors.997

Abstract

Along with shifts in how surveillance technologies work to control and capitalize on everyday life comes a need to understand and critique them. What past and present paranoid dystopian stories and other pop-culture parables seem to leave out is any thoughtful consideration of how surveillance racializes bodies and consolidates power in favor of racist hegemony, specifically in a post-9/11 context. We often fail to question in what ways popular discourse on surveillance and resistance to surveillance practices reinforce violence against--and consolidate control over--marginalized populations. Part of this almost willful negligence is symptomatic of visibility’s status as a both taken-for-granted and also privileged site of knowledge and as a medium of objective truth and a vehicle for power. Three artists--Ja'Tovia Gary, Basma Alsharif, and Hito Steyerl--bring forth a fresh analysis congruous with our contemporary moment, in which surveillance has shifted from disciplining through visual strategies to combining visual, informational, and affective modes of control.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

An undergraduate honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts/Science in University Honors and English/Film Studies.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35152

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