Maciej Ozog

musician, theorist of film and new media art, Department of Electronic Media, University of Lodz (PL)

Under the skin. Surveillance as a theme and method of media art.

Keywords : Surveillance; media art aesthetics; critical attitude; interaction; performance;

The paper addresses the issue of artistic use of surveillance technologies and tries to analyse various strategies taken by media artists to question rhetorics of surveillance present in the postmodern society. Although surveillance is regarded as one of decisive factors in development of media art from video to interactive art and at the same time one of its sustaining topics, the main focus of the paper is on the use and artistic manipulation of images delivered by surveillance systems. In this respect four strategies are taken into account which are represented by works of David Rokeby, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Michelle Teran and Thomas Koner.

David Rokeby, using digitally transformed images of surveillance cameras, asks questions about the ways in which principles of digital surveillance influence or even determine our vision of social processes, communication and our attitude towards others.   This issue is also present in large-scale public "relational architecture" installations by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. However his works focus mostly on surveillance systems regarded as a tool that not only influence interpersonal relations but also our self-awareness in public domain. As surveillance cameras moved from state building and other public sites to private space of homes and pc desktops the image they produce became more intimate and introspective. It can be regarded as a projection of personal fears, desires, intentions and dreams. This is the theme of Michelle Teran works, especially her "Life: A User's manual" piece. Pictures of surveillance cameras can also reveal almost metaphysical dimension of our environment. Taken out of context of control and discipline, their "immaterial", "inhuman" quality evoke meditative states, which is well manifested in Thomas Koner's works.

Maciej Ozog is a theorist and historian of film and new media art. He studied film theory, film history, literature and philosophy at the University of Lodz.. In 2002 he received a PhD from the University of Lodz for a dissertation on American avant-garde film of the 60s. Between 1997 and 2001 he taught film theory, history and aesthetics of avant-garde film at the University of Lodz.. Since 2004 he has worked at the Department of Electronic Media of the University of Lodz.

He published numerous articles concerning avant-garde film and new media art mostly in polish. He has taken part in numerous conferences, among other ISEA Symposium 2004 and Media Art Conference Osnabrück 2006.

Besides his academic activities he is also a musician and multimedia artist. In 1991 he started a project Spear. Spear released 5 CDs, took part in numerous collaborations and participated in various festivals and exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Since 1999 he has run a small-scale label "Ignis" for experimental music. In 2005 he stared a new project called ben zene dedicated to electro-acoustic music.