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CCTV Oddity: Archaeology and Aesthetics of Video Surveillance

CCTV Oddity: Archaeology and Aesthetics of Video Surveillance

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CCTV Oddity: Archaeology and Aesthetics of Video Surveillance
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<strong>CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE Jawaharlal Nehru University</strong> SEMINAR SERIES <strong>PAOLO CARDULLO</strong> Associate Lecturer, CUCR – Goldsmiths, University of London on <strong>CCTV Oddity: Archaeology and Aesthetics of Video Surveillance</strong> The paper reflects on two hackivist projects, an art installation and a performance, which sought to exploit opportunities offered by ubiquitous CCTV cameras in streets and academic campuses in London. Through experimenting with misuse/hacking of surveillance system we start unpacking video surveillance(s) and the function of control implicit in the surveillance gaze. The projects plot two main reflections. Firstly, we highlight the 'normal' functioning of surveillance gaze as a dispositif of control: this starts re-surfacing even in our projects, which meant to disrupt its determinism. Drawing on Fuller's analysis of video surveillance as 'media ecology' (Fuller 2005) – that is a complex process and assemblage of materialities, meanings, and affordances – we however suggest that visual output of CCTV cameras is contextual to the specific configuration the system takes. Our projects, in fact, by temporarily changing roles and accountabilities between 'watchers' and 'the watched', favoured the development of hybrid forms of -veillances and reflexivity. Secondly, and consequently, we devise art projects as a form of critical methodology in visual studies. We hope that such forms of intervention contribute to make visual surveillance unstable, by not only investigating its apparatus, but by also engaging and complicating its capabilities as a security technology. In this sense, art interventions are inventive methodologies (Lury et al. 2012). They critically engage with a specific apparatus, here and now, rather than becoming tools to be deployed always and everywhere in the same way. <strong>Friday, 08 April 2016</strong> <strong>ABOUT THE SPEAKER: </strong>Paolo Cardullo is Associate Lecturer of Sociology (Goldsmiths), currently teaching modules of the MA in Photography and Urban Culture. He is affiliated to the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) and was CHASE-AHRC 'Going Digital' Scholar (2013). His PhD in Visual Sociology at Goldsmiths (UoL) is around the affective geographies of gentrification in East Greenwich (2012). Further info and publications: http://kiddingthecity.org

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.