surveillance in the arts

[empty mirror]

there is almost a surveillance aesthetic. paranoiac. black/white. grainy.

the wire:

sneakers:

the conversation:

antonioni's blow up and di Palma's blow out fit in here---spectatorship, rear window morality (actually Hitchcock's rear window fits in here----even bits of mobile surveillance in this picture)

trans am, the surveillance:

elvis costello----watching the detectives

hall & oates----private eyes

simon x. garfunkel----america: "the man in the gabardine suit is a spy, be careful his bowtie is really a camera"

there are surveillance cameras in philadelphia-----and all over london.
and in so many stores, elevators, public/private spaces, satellites...

why does it feel like someone is watching me?

 

[STN]

There is a (widely considered rubbish) Chris Petit film in which a man and a woman stalk each other on CCTV.

 

[BareBones]

That film 'Hidden' from a few years back would fit on this list too. That was a good film.

 

[crackerjack]

What's the dogme Scottish surveillance flick, Red Road? That's the bollocks, that.

I wathced a film last week by Chris Petit with sting in it. Boooooooooooring.

 

[littlebird]

swingin spies + private eyes

eye in the sky ~ alan parsons project

films like Brazil, the Anderson Tapes and The Conversation?

books? Oath of Fealty, 1984, some P. K. Dick's work?

 

[IdleRich]

That film 'Hidden' from a few years back would fit on this list too. That was a good film.

Did he ever acknowledge how much that beginning is stolen from Lost Highway? Quite similar films over all in fact in that they both have the same set up and then shy away from revealing who is making and leaving the tapes in favour of going a bit weird.

"What's the dogme Scottish surveillance flick, Red Road? That's the bollocks, that."

Do you reckon? I thought it was pretty average. Not shit but not good really either.

"I wathced a film last week by Chris Petit with sting in it. Boooooooooooring."

Radio On? That's a mixture of interesting and boring I think - the bit with Sting in falls into the shit bit obviously. Speaking of Sting, isn't Every Breath You Take about surveillance?

 

[BareBones]

Did he ever acknowledge how much that beginning is stolen from Lost Highway? Quite similar films over all in fact in that they both have the same set up and then shy away from revealing who is making and leaving the tapes in favour of going a bit weird.

haha! that's quite a good way of putting it. I thought it was that creepy little guy that was making the tapes in Lost Highway? I can't really remember, i haven't seen it for ages... i'd say Lost Highway is more concerned with voyeurism than surveillance though..?

 

[crackerjack]

Do you reckon? I thought it was pretty average. Not shit but not good really either.

I watched expecting a moderately interesting change from the norm and was riveted, genuinely didn't have any idea how it was gonna pan out, or what exactly he'd done to piss her off

Radio On? That's a mixture of interesting and boring I think

Liked the music, liked the bit with the squaddie. The rest bored me to tears. When I say watched, what I really mean is 'sat wqith my finger on the fast forward button until some vaguely interesting-looking bit came up'. I'd just done the same, only more so, with Sympathy Fopr The Devil too. I was trying to make some space on the hard drive and was having a 'clear out music-related art movies' evening. To that extent, it went quite well.

- the bit with Sting in falls into the shit bit obviously. Speaking of Sting, isn't Every Breath You Take about surveillance?

Don't dis Sting.

Oh, alright, but only his acting.

 

[empty mirror]

i'd say Lost Highway is more concerned with voyeurism than surveillance though..?

surveillance is voyeurism plus supra-masturbatory telos

 

[IdleRich]

"haha! that's quite a good way of putting it. I thought it was that creepy little guy that was making the tapes in Lost Highway?"

Well I was going to say something more involved but I thought that that summed it up better. I guess it is the little guy though - maybe I should have said "shied away from giving any possible explanation of how it could have occurred" - and how the creepy little guy could be in the main guy's house when he's also standing right in front of him at that party.

"I watched expecting a moderately interesting change from the norm and was riveted, genuinely didn't have any idea how it was gonna pan out, or what exactly he'd done to piss her off"

Yeah, fair enough. I didn't know what he would turn out to have done and I suppose I would normally enjoy the moral ambiguity of most of the characters (she's wronged but she's crossed a line for revenge, he's done wrong but genuinely seems to be trying to turn over a new leaf) and yet I just found it a bit too typical of gritty British (Scottish) films and despite this didn't find the whole thing believable.

"Liked the music"

I think the film succeeds very well in making you really listen to the music (possibly because most of the time nothing much is happening on screen, slowly and in black and white) and making you appreciate a load of records that you've heard a million times and hear them with fresh ears in a way.

"Oh, alright, but only his acting."

You've not seen him dance in Quadrophenia then?

 

[empty mirror]

sting was good in dune
and Hellblazer's John Constantine (comic book character) was modeled after his looks

 

[crackerjack]

I think the film succeeds very well in making you really listen to the music (possibly because most of the time nothing much is happening on screen, slowly and in black and white) and making you appreciate a load of records that you've heard a million times and hear them with fresh ears in a way.

True, I did like the way it used music, just not the way nothing bloody happened. If I hadn't tried it straight after SOTD I might've been more patient.

You've not seen him dance in Quadrophenia then?

Ow, i've been trying to forget.

 

[IdleRich]

True, I did like the way it used music, just not the way nothing bloody happened.

Well, I wouldn't want to stick up for the film too much. I don't really know what he was trying to get at with it and I don't really understand why it seems to be held in such high regard. It does have a genuinely strange feel to it though which I do like in a film but which I'm not sure is enough to sustain it over ninety minutes.
I suppose it's difficult to make a road movie set in Britain - are there any really good ones? Actually that should be a different thread.
Back to surveillance - I'm amazed that no-one has mentioned 1984 and Big Brother, surely the thing which for various reasons has come to dominate the field of surveillance related discussion, be it to do with art or the cctv cameras in our city centres.

 

[BareBones]

surveillance is voyeurism plus supra-masturbatory telos

there's still a difference

 

[Octopus?]

Lynch's daughter Jennifer actually has a film coming out called "Surveillance", oddly enough. Seems to be kind of a Rashomon-esque horror/thriller.

Don't know how it is, but it would be a heroic triumph if it's any worse than "Boxing Helena".

 

[Ness Rowlah]

It's one of Rafael Lozano-Hammer themes.

 

[jd_]

The Ear is a good one for this list. An old Czech film about a couple trying to avoid the surveillance equipment in their apartment so they can talk to each other.

Panic Room maybe too?

 

[version]

Is there a name for this area of the art world focused on things like military technology and 'operational images'? @dilbert1 and I touched on it in the Flusser thread when Harun Farocki and Theo Anthony came up and I've just come across a couple more people called Trevor Paglen and Jak Ritger; Johan Grimonprez is another somewhere in this territory.

Operational Images - Journal #59

…

www.e-flux.com

There's a Kodwo Eshun piece on Farocki in the volume the above piece is from too. It's a Farocki tribute issue.

A Question They Never Stop Asking - Journal #59

…

www.e-flux.com

 

[dilbert1]

I dunno I’m just pissed off reading this that Kodwo’s seen all his movies and I haven’t

 

[dilbert1]

I’d say it broadly fits into the ‘anti-documentary’ and ‘research-based practice’ categories, or at the crossroads of those things. I’d call it Technology Awareness art maybe