Trace Recordings
22 October—29 November 2013
UTS Gallery, University of Technology, Sydney

Denis Beaubois, James Bridle, Mahwish Chishty, Paolo Cirio, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Benjamin Gaulon, Adam Harvey, Trevor Paglen, Shinseungback Kimyonghun and Matt Richardson.

Curated by Chris Gaul and Holly Williams

Turning an eye to 21st century surveillance, Trace Recordings examines the mechanisms of these increasingly pervasive systems, explores how they are altering our behaviours and shifting our ideas of public/private selves.

From the DNA left on chewed gum to top-secret NSA listening stations, this exhibition casts an artistic light on the scale and sophistication of surveillance technologies, question their lack of transparency and asks what power we have as individuals within them. From data tracking to drones, Trace Recordings presents work by eleven artists who use a wide variety of media and ideas to critically and at times playfully address these issues.


View works



View installation images


View opening images

A program of public events including panel discussion Welcome to the New Normal, a UTSpeaks talk, interactive workshops and an education program accompanied the exhibition. Find out more here

Acknowledgements
With thanks to: the exhibiting artists and panel participants; Aaron Anderson; Pat Armstrong; Jane Clulow; Sunanda Creagh; Tania Creighton; Catherine Deans; Daniel Green; Karin de Jesus; Alice McAuliffe; Alessandra Mekari; Blair Murphy; Dr Clinton Ng; Karolina Novak; Kenzee Patterson; Elizabeth Peters; and Tim Roxburgh.

HEATHER DEWEY-HAGBORG
Stranger Visions  2012
3D prints, documents, found samples
dimensions vary

Stranger Visions is a series of 3D printed portraits based on genetic material taken from public places. Heather Dewey-Hagborg analyses DNA from found cigarette butts, chewed gum and stray hairs to generate portraits of each subject based on their genetic data. Stranger Visions reveals the disconcerting possibilities for surveillance in the intimate and immensely detailed traces we leave as we move through the world.

MAHWISH CHISHTY
MQ-9/1 2011
MQ-9/2 2011
each 30×76 cm
gouache, gold leaf and tea stain on handmade paper

Unauthorised incursions by unmanned aircraft have become commonplace in North-West Pakistan since the United States declared 'War On Terror'. Mahwish Chishty's paintings of CIA surveillance and attack drones are intricately rendered in the elaborate and colourful Pakistani folk-tradition of truck decoration. This style of decoration proudly reflects the personality of each truck driver—in contrast to the unadorned, drab grey exteriors of actual drones that reveal nothing about their far-distant operators.

PAOLO CIRIO
Street Ghosts 2012–ongoing
printed paper, site-specific
dimensions vary

Paolo Cirio's portraits depict people as captured by Google street view cameras. Each Street Ghost is rendered life-size at the site where the street view image was originally taken. The series appears in the streetscape of major cities including New York, London, Toronto, Berlin and Hong Kong. Street view has been banned in several jurisdictions to protect personal privacy. In 2010 it was revealed that the street view fleet collected and stored masses of data from local WiFi networks—information that may have included parts of private emails, photographs or browsed websites.

SHINSEUNGBACK KIMYONGHUN
Memory 2013
digital tablet, custom software and wooden frame
30×24.5×3 cm

Memory is a digital tablet equipped with facial recognition software. The device records each face it recognises, endlessly superimposing faces to generate a composite portrait of every person who has viewed the work. Like the digital devices we interact with every day, Memory quietly and diligently records and reports what it sees. As our digital devices become ever more natural extensions of ourselves, Memory reminds us that, as we gaze at them, they are gazing back—constantly capturing the details of our lives and transmitting them to audiences unseen and unknown.

JAMES BRIDLE
A Quiet Disposition  2013
printed books, computer monitor, networked software
dimensions vary

The ‘Disposition Matrix’ is a system used by the U.S. Government to make sense of masses of surveillance and intelligence information. The system constantly analyses new intelligence data to create a matrix of connections among individuals and events. This matrix is then used to generates lists of targets for drone strikes.

A Quiet Disposition is this matrix turned back on itself: James Bridle has created a system that constantly scans the internet for information about the people complicit in drone strikes and involved with the Disposition Matrix itself. Like the Disposition Matrix, the system catalogues individuals, objects and terminologies, analyses relationships and draws its own conclusions from the information it gathers.

TREVOR PAGLEN
They Watch the Moon 2010
digital c-type print, 91×122cm
On loan from the Collection of Dr Clinton Ng

They Watch the Moon depicts a secret NSA listening station deep in the forests of West Virginia. The station is at the centre of the National Radio Quiet Zone, a region of approximately 34,000 square kilometres in West Virginia and parts of Maryland. Within the Quiet Zone, WiFi, FM radio and similar transmissions are not permitted so that astronomers can use sensitive radio telescopes to observe distant galaxies. The listening station, which forms part of the global ECHELON system, was designed in part to take advantage of a phenomenon called 'moonbounce' (capturing communications and telemetry signals from around the world as they escape into space, hit the moon, and are reflected back towards Earth). The photograph is a long exposure under the full moon.

MATT RICHARDSON
Descriptive Camera  2012
mixed media, custom software
dimensions vary

Descriptive Camera functions like a regular camera, but instead of producing visual images it outputs written descriptions of what it sees. To generate output, the camera takes photographs of a scene and uploads the files to a web service that assigns ‘human intelligence tasks’ to workers from various locations around the world. One of these workers analyses the image and writes a short written description that is then output by a receipt printer built into the camera. Like the process of intelligence analysis, the method of generating output for the Descriptive Camera is opaque and the identity of each analyst is anonymous. Each image can be interpreted in multiple different ways and the unique style of each description highlights the subjective nature of image analysis and interpretation.

DENIS BEAUBOIS
Everybody Happy 2000
Here, now, infinitely there 2000
mixed media installations
dimensions vary

Denis Beaubois’ interest in surveillance and individual agency has taken many forms. In earlier works he employed performative, interventionist strategies to use urban surveillance infrastructure (such as red light traffic cameras) for his own artistic purposes. Everybody Happy and Here, now, infinitely there use simple surveillance technology, mirrors and monitors to evoke what he calls ‘the panopticon subjected to its own gaze’. His works contemplate the invisible power structures at work and the dualities of fear and passive complicity in the observational process.

ADAM HARVEY
CV Dazzle Workshop

Adam Harvey's CV Dazzle presents a speculative aesthetic for a world where computer vision and facial recognition systems are increasingly pervasive and sophisticated. His experimental hair and makeup styles are inspired by dazzle camouflage—striking graphic surfaces that aim not conceal a subject but to break up its form and impede recognition. CV Dazzle aims to disrupt computer recognition by breaking up the forms of the face in experimental and ever-changing ways.

CV Dazzle Workshop participants experiment with styles of disruptive face paint, testing their designs against a facial recognition algorithm. A workshop will take place during the opening of the exhibtion and other times to be advised.