Cultures of Surveillance: An Interdisciplinary Conference

We are being watched. The amazing part is that we are no longer even surprised by this. The culture of surveillance increasingly surrounds us in Europe where omnipresent CCTV cameras remind us that nothing escapes the invisible gaze of those behind the lens. At UCL, we have long been surveyed by our founder, Jeremy Bentham, who sits in a wooden case in the lobby and peers out with glass eyes and a wax head: his own ‘icon’ body signals that he not only knew what surveillance meant but named it through his invention of the Panopticon. That imaginary device, which Bentham proposed would help ‘reform morals, preserve health, invigorate industry, diffuse instruction, and lighten public burdens,’ continues to be a resonant touchstone for questions about the way governments and private agencies keep watch over our interests--and theirs. This conference, held where Bentham goes on watching both literally and metaphorically, proposes to explore, broadly, the interdisciplinary frameworks for understanding modern surveillance and, particularly, how surveillance practices intersect with visual technologies and histories of culture.

More information:
http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=17237