Atmospheres of Surveillance
Søilen, Karen Louise Grova LU
(2021)
- Abstract
- This dissertation is a contribution to the ‘cultural turn’ in the multidisciplinary field of surveillance studies. Its objective is to advance knowledge about how surveillance is perceived as bodily, emotional, and multisensory experiences - explored and conceptualized here as ‘atmospheres of surveillance’. The overarching argument is that surveillance contains and co-produces atmospheres. The study is informed by the following research question: in what ways may the concept ‘atmospheres of surveillance’ contribute to our understanding of the embodied, multisensory experience of contemporary surveillance culture?
The dissertation provides a new theoretical vocabulary and a methodological reflection on the articulation of the... (More) - This dissertation is a contribution to the ‘cultural turn’ in the multidisciplinary field of surveillance studies. Its objective is to advance knowledge about how surveillance is perceived as bodily, emotional, and multisensory experiences - explored and conceptualized here as ‘atmospheres of surveillance’. The overarching argument is that surveillance contains and co-produces atmospheres. The study is informed by the following research question: in what ways may the concept ‘atmospheres of surveillance’ contribute to our understanding of the embodied, multisensory experience of contemporary surveillance culture?
The dissertation provides a new theoretical vocabulary and a methodological reflection on the articulation of the ‘felt’ in order to grasp different aspects of the emotional and embodied experiences of surveillance, and how they influence us. The inquiry is informed by theories of atmosphere based in phenomenology, aesthetics, and affect studies, taking the German phenomenologist Gernot Böhme’s philosophy of atmosphere as its main point of departure. Atmospheres are understood as something which can be sensed in our surroundings through the body, and this dissertation argues that there is a need to move beyond the predominance of visual metaphors in surveillance studies in order to encompass multisensory experience. The concept of atmospheres gives prominence to the body as the site of lived experience for which surveillance generates a more or less subtle emotional and behavioral ‘repertoire’ (Morrison 2016).
Specifically, the theoretical framework of ‘atmospheres of surveillance’ is explored, nuanced, and further expanded through readings of a selection of works of contemporary installation art: Ed Atkins’ Safe Conduct (2016), Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen’s Modern Escape (2018), and Hito Steyerl’s Factory of the Sun (2015). Moreover, this dissertation offers an experimental methodology of written vignettes as a form of atmospheric writing for absorbing and performing the atmospheres of surveillance perceived in the artworks. Through the readings of the artworks, I supplement and nuance the initial conceptual formulation of ‘atmospheres of surveillance’ by employing Avery Gordon’s notion of ‘haunting’ (Gordon 2008) and Raymond Williams’ notion of ‘structures of feeling’ (Williams 1977), and develop a notion of ‘ambient entrapment' as a way of articulating emergent sensibilities towards surveillance. The dissertation concludes that being more attentive to the atmospheres of surveillance in our environment enables us to think critically about how they affect us, how they are absorbed bodily, and how they attune our being: how surveillance is ‘in the air’.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/41374944-d2d9-45b7-9846-3721584cfab0
- author
- Søilen, Karen Louise Grova
LU
- supervisor
- publishing date
- 2021-05
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- surveillance, atmospheres, everyday experience, affective experience of surveillance, contemporary art
- pages
- 200 pages
- publisher
- University of Copenhagen
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 41374944-d2d9-45b7-9846-3721584cfab0
- date added to LUP
- 2023-10-11 22:28:04
- date last changed
- 2023-11-23 11:16:19
@phdthesis{41374944-d2d9-45b7-9846-3721584cfab0,
abstract = {{This dissertation is a contribution to the ‘cultural turn’ in the multidisciplinary field of surveillance studies. Its objective is to advance knowledge about how surveillance is perceived as bodily, emotional, and multisensory experiences - explored and conceptualized here as ‘atmospheres of surveillance’. The overarching argument is that surveillance contains and co-produces atmospheres. The study is informed by the following research question: in what ways may the concept ‘atmospheres of surveillance’ contribute to our understanding of the embodied, multisensory experience of contemporary surveillance culture? <br/><br/>The dissertation provides a new theoretical vocabulary and a methodological reflection on the articulation of the ‘felt’ in order to grasp different aspects of the emotional and embodied experiences of surveillance, and how they influence us. The inquiry is informed by theories of atmosphere based in phenomenology, aesthetics, and affect studies, taking the German phenomenologist Gernot Böhme’s philosophy of atmosphere as its main point of departure. Atmospheres are understood as something which can be sensed in our surroundings through the body, and this dissertation argues that there is a need to move beyond the predominance of visual metaphors in surveillance studies in order to encompass multisensory experience. The concept of atmospheres gives prominence to the body as the site of lived experience for which surveillance generates a more or less subtle emotional and behavioral ‘repertoire’ (Morrison 2016). <br/><br/>Specifically, the theoretical framework of ‘atmospheres of surveillance’ is explored, nuanced, and further expanded through readings of a selection of works of contemporary installation art: Ed Atkins’ Safe Conduct (2016), Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen’s Modern Escape (2018), and Hito Steyerl’s Factory of the Sun (2015). Moreover, this dissertation offers an experimental methodology of written vignettes as a form of atmospheric writing for absorbing and performing the atmospheres of surveillance perceived in the artworks. Through the readings of the artworks, I supplement and nuance the initial conceptual formulation of ‘atmospheres of surveillance’ by employing Avery Gordon’s notion of ‘haunting’ (Gordon 2008) and Raymond Williams’ notion of ‘structures of feeling’ (Williams 1977), and develop a notion of ‘ambient entrapment' as a way of articulating emergent sensibilities towards surveillance. The dissertation concludes that being more attentive to the atmospheres of surveillance in our environment enables us to think critically about how they affect us, how they are absorbed bodily, and how they attune our being: how surveillance is ‘in the air’. <br/>}},
author = {{Søilen, Karen Louise Grova}},
keywords = {{surveillance; atmospheres; everyday experience; affective experience of surveillance; contemporary art}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{University of Copenhagen}},
title = {{Atmospheres of Surveillance}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/161673787/Ph.d._afhandling_2021_S_ilen.pdf}},
year = {{2021}},
}