Abstract
Image-making was once a human craft—a photographer’s vision, a painter’s touch, or a journalist’s perspective gave shape to how we saw the world. Today, AI-driven, multisensory platforms produce representations that stretch far beyond the familiar boundaries of human perception, translating and reassembling the world in ways that are often inscrutable. These invisible, arcane agents have emerged through a layered evolution of technologies, yet they operate in a new, complex web of accountability and visibility. Unlike previous democratic practices where scrutiny and contestation were essential, these technologies diffuse responsibility, subtly shifting the public’s ability to challenge and engage with those who watch. Despite their unfamiliar qualities, these systems build on technologies we know—photography, social media, stock images, and journalism. This continuity allows us to “trace the shadows” of these new assemblages, attempting to follow the threads back to familiar forms of image-making. This paper starts from a critical vantage point along the EU’s longest external land border, between Sweden and Norway, to look back at the technologies that now surveil this space. Using artistic methods and experimental image-making, we seek to understand not only how these platforms see but also how they reshape our own capacity to see and critique in return. Through this exploration, we reflect on what these technological shifts mean for democracy and the visibility of power.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—From Democratic Aesthetics to Digital Culture
KEYWORDS
Surveillance, Interpretation, Film, Multimodality, Technology, Democratic Visibility, Observer-Observed Dynamics, Networks
