For this project, we decided to focus on the Parisian surveillance system. We were interested in looking into the urban pattern of behavior the set of interconnected CCTVs coins over time. Consequently, we created a video-work questioning the interrelations between the observer and the observed within the system, evolving together according to urban circumstances. Throughout the process of development, we were inspired by Michel Foucault’s notion of Panopticism and adapted it to the Parisian surveillance network. We concluded that the system in question can be interpreted as follow: the visible and the invisible. The visible contains the camera’s configuration as well as the crowd’s actions. The invisible is the control the camera exercises over the public who in consequence, self-regulates.
The representational strategy we adopted is in itself a translation of the notion of the visible and the invisible into visual form. Indeed, the different locations we chose for the filming correspond to the CCTVs’ real-time configurations in the urban space. The crowd’s actions and self-regulations are documented into video format. Not to forget, the government’s perception, invisible to the public eye, is put into light by our camera angles. Similarly, the aesthetic of the grid is used as a reference to the video walls found in security control rooms. Finally, the purpose of the assignment being the mapping of a network, we organized the different video footages by district number.
Whilst we tried to investigate the Parisian surveillance system from an objective position, the artwork itself is an open-door to interpretations. Indeed, any audience could interpret it as a critique of the surveillance network or other, depending on their opinion about the subject. Another blind-spot or loophole to add to this piece, is the fact that it wasn’t shown in real time, which interferes with the accuracy of the representation of the network in question.
