Metaphors of subversion in surveillance art photography

Abstract

The study addresses the way in which visual and discourse metaphors embody subversion in contemporary forms of documentary photography which investigate and illustrate the issue of surveillance. Surveillance art is part of a new configuration of the vigilance phenomena entailed by massive digitalization, in which the classic roles of the observer and the observed have been replaced by complex participatory dynamics.

Combining social and cognitive semiotic approaches from a theoretical point of view, the analysis dwells on a corpus formed of imagery by Hasan Elahi, Tomas van Houtryve, Mishka Henner. The purpose is to detect and discuss a typology of visual metaphors, as well as metaphorizations of situations in curatorial and other discursive practices which accompany the photographic projects.

Grammar of Visual Design by Kress and van Leeuwen will serve as the main theoretical starting point in defining and explaining a series of internal structures and visual mechanisms which produce a diverse array of subversive effects. The study further aims to discuss metaphors related to discourse practices, since all the art projects belonging to the aesthetics of surveillance are accompanied by an ample series of textual instances. There is also the hybrid manifestation, in which we can speak of interplay between images and texts. The aim is to create counter narrative effects, a phenomenon which can be considered a form of artistic hacktivism.

Finally, we will argue that the resemantization of images and the perceptive implications related to this process are part of a deep social and psychological phenomenon. They represent a powerful indicator of the radical changes in the way in which we define the private and public sphere through the digital lens.