Blocking, breaking, masking, uncovering—many ways of resisting surveillance have been documented (Marx 2003). This panel brings together anthropologists and art practitioners to explore these acts, not as confrontation, but as venues for cultural creation.

The value of non-surveillance is often framed with recourse to privacy. But what about those counter-surveillance moves that make no reference to privacy, and are oriented towards different desires and ideals? Turning towards opacity—of rendering things illegible or unseeable—obviates privacy’s logics of possession, to consider the transformative space that this opens up.

Drawing on ethnographic and artistic work, the panel assembles a variety of arts of opacity, exploring what is generated through each process. In societies increasingly saturated by digital surveillance, it invites deeper questions about the value of non-surveillance as a method of imagining alternative futures.

2pm – 6pm: Panel Discussion in the Council Room followed by a drinks reception in the Somerset Room.

Speakers' Info:

Chair: Vita Peacock (King's College London)

Speakers:

• Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll (CEU)
• Rafael Schachter (UCL)
• Francisco Martinez (University of Murcia)
• Cecilia Salinas (University of Oslo)
• Wilson Villaverde (Chelsea College of Art / The Ruskin)