Observing bodies. Camera surveillance and the significance of the body

Abstract

At the most mundane level, CCTV observes bodies, and as such attaches great importance to the specific features of the human body. At the same time, however, bodies tend to disappear, as they are represented electronically by the camera monitors and, in the case of image recording, by the computer systems processing data. The roles of bodies (either as targets of surveillance or as translations into flows of disembodied information), however, are not unimportant or inconsequential, but may in fact give rise to a number of tangible ethical dilemmas. Firstly, the virtual representation of the embodied actor is not a neutral, unproblematic process. Body representation techniques such as CCTV produce constructions of the subject that involve judgmental, discriminatory processes of categorisation and are based on asymmetrical relations between observers and observed. Secondly, the 'data doubles' are not inconsequential: the representations of the body produced by CCTV can have palpable consequences for the embodied self and its life chances. The widespread use of CCTV could therefore give rise to individual as well as social issues, and possibly in a different manner than previous surveillance technologies. This fact signals the need for (re-)conceptualisations of moral values (such as privacy) applicable to the case of CCTV which take into account the importance of bodily protections.

How to silence the lambs? Constructing authoritarian governance in post-transitional Hungary

“…The decline, or slippery slope, from democratic to authoritarian governance can be explained by the asymmetric surveillance power between the state and its citizens (Fuchs 2012;Lyon 2010;Dubbeld 2003). Surveillance strategies are the distinctive tools of governance in this process (Lyon 2007:15).…”

Exploring Relations between Watchers and Watched in Control(led) Systems: Strategies and Tactics

“…They argue (p5): 'the difference between the unmediated gaze of the eyes, and the camera mediated gaze of the CCTV operator, [lies in] the profound asymmetry of power inherent in CCTV monitoring … [in that] the veil of the camera denies the possibility of a reciprocal exchange of visual data', thus placing the operator in a distinctly empowered, disciplinary position to follow, track and potentially exclude those individuals perceived to be 'out of place or out of time'. Therefore CCTV observation, it is claimed, precludes the possibility of the person observed directly questioning and challenging the watcher and this very process produces an uneven, unilateral power imbalance between the two (Dubbeld, 2003). So whilst camera operators can freely choose to monitor in close detail who and what they like (a seemingly clear indicator of power), they themselves cannot be seen, are relatively unaccountable for their gaze and remain, in a corporeal sense, absent (Dubbeld, 2003).…”

“…Therefore CCTV observation, it is claimed, precludes the possibility of the person observed directly questioning and challenging the watcher and this very process produces an uneven, unilateral power imbalance between the two (Dubbeld, 2003). So whilst camera operators can freely choose to monitor in close detail who and what they like (a seemingly clear indicator of power), they themselves cannot be seen, are relatively unaccountable for their gaze and remain, in a corporeal sense, absent (Dubbeld, 2003).…”

Redefining the witness: CSI and Law & Order as narratives of surveillance

“…Surveillance technologies like CCTV, RFID chips and biometrics all involve a relationship between the physical body and the digitized body. Raising ethical dilemmas, Lynsey Dubbeld (2003) argues that body representation techniques, such as CCTV, produce constructions of the subject that involve judgment and discriminatory processes of categorization, and are therefore based on asymmetrical power relations between observers and observed (Dubbeld,151). Dubbeld claims that the visualization processes enabled by CCTV result in the disappearance of the human physical body; it only remains significant in that the digital abstraction of the physical body can have palpable consequences for the embodied self and its life chances (Dubbeld,152).…”

“…In the CSI franchise, body integrity is overlooked as the narrative and the dialogues are not critical o f posthumanism but rather embrace its notions. As Dubbeld's work would also suggest, surveillance technology that witnesses a crime or matches fingerprints across a database can overcome the disappearance o f the physical body as the digital information abstracted from the body can lead to the conviction o f the embodied self (Dubbeld 2003). CSI: M iami demonstrates the fact that the physical body becomes scrutinized through political and legal approaches that view it as material and genetic.…”