Document:Q10518

Panopticon is an installation consisting of eighteen CCTV cameras, arranged in two parallel rows and partly submerged in concrete. The concrete mass covering 100m2 (gallery room) will be bristled with glassy vandal-resistant domes. Transparent shields hide the lens of CCTV cameras aimed at monitoring of public space. Through its very form, the installation directly refers to the issue of Surveillance Culture - social surveillance carried out by means of technological devices. This problem has been entering our everyday lives in an increasingly aggressive way for some time now, since the borders of our privacy are being constantly explored, penetrated and gradually took over.
The Panopticon installation puts the viewer in an unusual space which, due to its form and mysterious ambiguity, inspires a moment of reflection. The viewer is surrounded by operating monitoring devices; he can hear them working, yet he does not know whether he is being recorded by a single camera or by all of them. And if he is being recorded, what will happen to the material on which he has been registered?