Remote Solidarity and Remote Warfare: Street Art and Military Visualising Technologies in Palestinian Territories.
(2018) KOVM12 20181Division of Art History and Visual Studies
- Abstract
- This essay investigates the ways of convergence of the spectacle with the surveillance, as suggested by Thomas Mitchell and Nicholas Mirzoeff. In order to ground their suggested theory in concrete visual empirical cases, I situate my analysis in the Palestinian territories. I juxtapose ostensibly disparate visual phenomena deriving from the street art and the military visualizing technologies. The first part consists of a comparison between JR's project Face2Face and the biometric passports implemented in the area. By using the same visual motif of the image of the face, street art promotes social dialogue while biometrics inscribe the borderline demarcation onto the bodily traits. Consequently, they testify for the convergence of the... (More)
- This essay investigates the ways of convergence of the spectacle with the surveillance, as suggested by Thomas Mitchell and Nicholas Mirzoeff. In order to ground their suggested theory in concrete visual empirical cases, I situate my analysis in the Palestinian territories. I juxtapose ostensibly disparate visual phenomena deriving from the street art and the military visualizing technologies. The first part consists of a comparison between JR's project Face2Face and the biometric passports implemented in the area. By using the same visual motif of the image of the face, street art promotes social dialogue while biometrics inscribe the borderline demarcation onto the bodily traits. Consequently, they testify for the convergence of the spectacle with the surveillance for diametrically different purposes. In the second chapter, I focus on the multiple reproduction of the stencil painting NoTitle(BalloonGirl) created by Banksy and on the visual analysis of two hacked images from Israeli drones. Referencing Walter Benjamin's essay The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, I argue that the advancing visualizing technologies for the mechanical and digital reproducibility are being appropriated by the spectacle and the surveillance for supplementary reasons. The massive consumption of the image of the stencil soothes and absorbs the fatal dangers evoked by the illusionary nature of drone footage. The last chapter consists of the exploration of the transferability of an artwork to the Western cities and galleries. The analysis is based on Miwon Kwon's theory and begins with the transfer of JR's project in European cities followed up by the Whole in the Wall exhibition and concludes with the Astro Noise exhibition. The aim is to highlight the transitions occurred in the beholder, from the act of observing, to the bodily engagement and to ultimately becoming the observed and the surveilled. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8959647
- author
- Bitouni, Panagiota LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- KOVM12 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- street art, spectacle, biometrics, drone surveillance, Palestine
- language
- English
- id
- 8959647
- date added to LUP
- 2020-10-22 15:37:18
- date last changed
- 2020-10-22 15:37:18
@misc{8959647,
abstract = {{This essay investigates the ways of convergence of the spectacle with the surveillance, as suggested by Thomas Mitchell and Nicholas Mirzoeff. In order to ground their suggested theory in concrete visual empirical cases, I situate my analysis in the Palestinian territories. I juxtapose ostensibly disparate visual phenomena deriving from the street art and the military visualizing technologies. The first part consists of a comparison between JR's project Face2Face and the biometric passports implemented in the area. By using the same visual motif of the image of the face, street art promotes social dialogue while biometrics inscribe the borderline demarcation onto the bodily traits. Consequently, they testify for the convergence of the spectacle with the surveillance for diametrically different purposes. In the second chapter, I focus on the multiple reproduction of the stencil painting NoTitle(BalloonGirl) created by Banksy and on the visual analysis of two hacked images from Israeli drones. Referencing Walter Benjamin's essay The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, I argue that the advancing visualizing technologies for the mechanical and digital reproducibility are being appropriated by the spectacle and the surveillance for supplementary reasons. The massive consumption of the image of the stencil soothes and absorbs the fatal dangers evoked by the illusionary nature of drone footage. The last chapter consists of the exploration of the transferability of an artwork to the Western cities and galleries. The analysis is based on Miwon Kwon's theory and begins with the transfer of JR's project in European cities followed up by the Whole in the Wall exhibition and concludes with the Astro Noise exhibition. The aim is to highlight the transitions occurred in the beholder, from the act of observing, to the bodily engagement and to ultimately becoming the observed and the surveilled.}},
author = {{Bitouni, Panagiota}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Remote Solidarity and Remote Warfare: Street Art and Military Visualising Technologies in Palestinian Territories.}},
year = {{2018}},
}