Surveillance capitalism : how can an art installation raise awareness on modern surveillance?

Abstract

This dissertation entails a study of surveillance in a society dominated by capitalism (Zuboff, 2019). Applying the use of digital art to data gathered from a number of participants, an interactive sculpture was built. The purpose of the installation is to raise awareness about the gathering and managing of data, specifically data gathered online, taking away our privacy (Wacks, 2010). The data gathering uses the method of a focus group based online which required a number of people to send their Google Takeout, including Google searches dating back to 2011. The design process of the physical installation then took the methodology of usability testing in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) (Lazar, 2017) and evolved later on to an online implementation using an Internet of Things (IoT) solution. The physical installation involves a thermal printer, glass box and dummy CCTV cameras that detect the proximity distance to the viewer. The reflective discussion chapter explains the relationship between the contextual review and its evolvement into a digital art piece as well as the use of interactivity to convey a message in a simple manner. In the final chapter the study comes to a close by recapping how artistic research was applied to the final installation and mentioning briefly the technologies that are shaping our future and how they will contribute to the digital arts.