Transcript: Selfies, Sousveillance & Participatory Countersurveillance

Artists Hasan Elahi and Annina Rüst consider the culture and ecosystems of pervasive surveillance and the control of information and privacy. In his work, “Tracking Transience,” Elahi, the subject of an FBI investigation after 9/11, offers the FBI a continuously updated stream of information about his life and whereabouts. Elahi’s practice of self-surveillance, or sousveillance, inverts, as well as asserts, his control of information. In works such as “Tracenozier – Disinformation on Demand,” Rüst explores Participatory Countersurveillance and the complicated relationship between surveillant and surveillee in networked communications. How does our understanding of the data-selfie fit within the tradition of self-portraiture?

Hasan Elahi is an interdisciplinary artist whose work examines issues of surveillance, citizenship, migration, transport, borders and frontiers. Elahi has exhibited and spoken internationally and is currently Associate Professor of Art at the University of Maryland.

Annina Rüst, a LACMA Art + Tech Lab Grantee, is a Swiss artist whose works focus on political issues within tech culture, including gender representation and online privacy and participatory surveillance. Rüst is an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University Department of Transmedia.