Bio-Exempt: Art in the Age of Digital, Networked Surveillance

Bio-Exempt: Art in the Age of Digital, Networked Surveillance proposes an innovative, transdisciplinary approach that broadly addresses - critically, creatively, technically and publicly - the global impact of computer-based surveillance practices, such as dataveillance, biometric security and drone warfare. Responding to the lack of contemporary research that rigorously considers the critical relations between artistic practice and digital, networked surveillance, this research project positions art as a thriving, diverse and robust mode of engagement that powerfully intervenes into contemporary surveillance contexts. I seek to demonstrate, and experiment with, art's ability to empower persons through documentary revelation and technical skill and to inspire with visions of possible futures.

The project orients around "bio-exempt," a term coined by the UK Home Office that describes a privileged category of persons not required to provide biometric data to the state upon immigration. Bio-exempt is taken up as a unique research frame that gives attention to the ways in which digital, networked surveillance propagates existent forms of discrimination, such as acts of algorithmic racial profiling or the prejudice and suspicion inflicted on transgender persons during airport security procedures. Thus, the research project collaborates with the fields of queer theory, transgender studies, feminist theory and critical race studies to interrogate such injustices. Cutting across a myriad of fields and areas of study, Bio-Exempt: Art in the Age of Digital, Networked Surveillance, unites academics, artists, scientists and technologists, government workers and the public in order to focus on the question: how can and do artistic practices creatively, critically and technically confront the inequalities endemic to emerging modes of computational surveillance?

Bio-Exempt: Art in the Age of Digital, Networked Surveillance is to be staged in collaboration with four international project partners, spanning top-tier research universities, renowned art centers and research institutes. Partners include The Showroom (UK), a leading arts organization in London; the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art at Cornell University (USA), one of the only archives that exclusively focuses on digital art; the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at the University of California, San Diego (USA), a site for cutting-edge research in science, technology and engineering; and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (Australia), a critically celebrated public contemporary arts venue. Across these institutions, archival research into the arts, technology and sciences will be carried out, alongside a diverse and multi-modal programme of public knowledge exchanges. Featuring perspectives from the arts, academia, science and technology industries and government policy, exchanges will take the form of conversations, lectures, screenings, artistic events, and seminars. Furthermore, a series of publications, including a single-authored book and an edited book, will be synergistically pursued in tandem with public events.

Overall, research on digital, networked surveillance demands a global perspective and a transdisciplinary approach in order to effectively work together and innovate with those persons engaging with this emerging and urgent area of study. Bio-Exempt: Art in the Age of Digital, Networked Surveillance aims to open up new research pathways for these pursuits by giving attention to the power of artistic practices when facing forces of domination, control and oppression.

International communities affiliated with the arts, including artists, curators, arts writers and other arts professionals, will benefit from the proposed research through exposure to new art histories and theories, as well as through direct participation in public knowledge exchange events at high profile public contemporary art venues. Such exposure and participation with international art communities can spark new curatorial projects, including major exhibitions and surveys focusing on digital art and digital, networked surveillance; inspire new artistic projects; incite new art criticism in major art journals; and, introduce unknown and emerging contemporary digital artists to arts professionals.

In particular, the contemporary arts venue The Showroom (London, UK) will benefit from the proposed research through hosting numerous public knowledge exchanges, lectures, conversations and workshops with leading academics, artists and other professionals from around the world for 24 months. The Showroom will thus transform into a leading public hub for researching and practically experimenting with artistic responses to digital, networked surveillance. These activities may bring further international notoriety, critical acclaim and press coverage to The Showroom.

Additionally, the Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane, Australia) will benefit through networking with arts communities across Australia with an interest in digital art and digital, networked surveillance. Not only will this give Australian communities an opportunity for public knowledge exchanges, which will bolster the IMA's public profile, but such networking activities at the IMA will also expand the institution's typical focus and audiences, as the IMA usually does not engage digital art or questions of surveillance.

Professional and amateur communities invested in technical skills and scientific knowledge will benefit from the proposed research by gaining insights that situate and contextualize what might seem "purely technical" or "purely scientifically objective" within arts, culture and society. As a result, such insights may influence the design and implementation of digital, networked surveillance technologies. These benefits may be experienced by staff, guest researchers and communities at The Showroom and the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, through public knowledge exchanges, which will additionally provide new international perspectives that may set original research agendas.

Governmental professionals and workers will benefit from the proposed research by participation in public knowledge exchanges. For instance, policymakers working with digital, networked surveillance will be invited to publicly converse with those in the arts, humanities and the general public thus gaining new critical and creative perspectives that may impact and influence policy decisions.

General communities and publics around the world will benefit from the proposed research project through exchanges and workshops that invite and solicit their participation. These public activities may aid persons in understanding the contemporary urgencies surrounding digital, networked surveillance, such as heated debates on airport security and immigration, dataveillance and counter-terrorism as well as drone warfare. Public activities may also encourage individuals to pursue further research, studies and/or artistic practices concerning digital, networked surveillance and digital art, such as a degree in a higher education institution; additional public education through arts venues; or creatively inventive approaches.