Under the guise of public safety, carceral projects demand a growing body of personal information, rendering us all as subjects within secretive mass surveillance experiments. How we exist in physical space is observed and quantified through methods like gait recognition, facial scanning, and extralegal questioning. Our digital experiences implicate us in investigations that use tools like cell-site simulators to intercept mobile communications, scripts to scrape information from online profiles, and geo-fence dragnets that compel online platforms to cough up consumer data. Without clarity and without consent, such tactics subvert participatory democracy norms and evade legal protections already ill-equipped for an ever datafied environment.
Where enforcement agencies redact and withhold information about their monitoring practices, the works in this exhibition utilize the same tech and methods to do the very opposite; to uncover, disorient, and collapse such forms of policing. Original function is voided and information previously obfuscated becomes revealed beyond the security theater used to justify expansion of such monitoring. Visitors to Whiteout can anticipate a role reversal in which they are prompted to watch the watchers and to enforce the enforcers.
Artists
Christopher Harris
Sam Lavigne (https://lav.io/)
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste (https://www.jeremytoussaintbaptiste.com)
Maya Williams
Yuan Zichen (https://yuanzichen.com/)
Gallery hours: Friday & Saturday, 12–4PM; Tuesday–Thursday by appointment onlyMore info on https://www.thecompoundbaltimore.com/And stay tuned for a performance during the exhibition soon!