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Short abstract:

This paper interrogates public participation and invisibility within the context of the digital expository society (Harcourt, 2015) through artistic case studies of the work of Zach Blas, Hito Steyerl, and Paolo Cirio.

Long abstract:

Utilizing case studies of surveillance art that centralize public participation, this paper interrogates opacity and invisibility in the context of the digital expository society (Harcourt 2015). According to Bernard Harcourt, we no longer exist within the context of the disciplinary (Foucault 2012 [1975]) or control societies (Deleuze 1992) where subjection was facilitated by centralized and decentralized surveillance respectively. Rather, we are immersed in the neoliberal and digital condition of the expository society, where subjection is facilitated by encouraging self-exposure and techniques of continuous surveillance. Encouraged along by our own fantasies and pleasures, we willingly engage with interactive platforms and disclose personal information, providing fodder for the markets that subject us.

How does invisibility become a strategic way to reimagine public participation beyond its perversion in the expository society? Artists Zach Blas, Hito Steyerl, and Paolo Cirio interrogate the current predicament of public participation and propose creative solutions to avoid subjection grounded in invisibility and opacity. From evading biometric facial recognition technologies through amorphous masks (Blas), to obscuring mugshots on the internet (Cirio), these artists grapple with technologies that interpolate us into compulsive forms of participating. This paper will consider the work of these artists to argue that the ideals of public participation need to be reframed within the current juncture marked by an uneven distribution of privacy and the right to choose or refuse participation.