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Surveillance and spectacle in webcam-based artworks : Eyes of Laura by Janet Cardiff and Homecammers--Women by Cheryl Sourkes

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Surveillance and spectacle in webcam-based artworks : Eyes of Laura by Janet Cardiff and Homecammers--Women by Cheryl Sourkes

Vescio, Dina (2009) Surveillance and spectacle in webcam-based artworks : Eyes of Laura by Janet Cardiff and Homecammers--Women by Cheryl Sourkes. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates two webcam-based artworks by Canadian artists Janet Cardiff (b. 1957) and Cheryl Sourkes (b. 1945), arguing that these new media artworks bring forward a consideration of the ways in which Michel Foucault's notion of the `surveillance society' and Guy Debord's concept of the `society of the spectacle' co-exist within digital society. Drawing from surveillance, media and feminist studies, the thesis briefly outlines the history of webcam use in contemporary art and provides reasons which support digital society's appeal toward webcam imagery. It then discusses Cardiff's Eyes of Laura (2002-2004) in connection with notions of public space spectatorship and theories of film noir, the 'flâneur(euse)' and the Panopticon. This is followed by an examination of Sourkes' Homecammers -- Women (2006) in relation to notions of private space spectatorship and theories of the 'cam girl' and the Synopticon. I argue in both analyses, and through their comparison, how each instigates an institutional critique in their own way at the same time that they call upon spectators to consider the co-existence of surveillance and spectacle in digital society.

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Fine Arts > Art History
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:Vescio, Dina
Pagination:vii, 91 leaves : ill. (chiefly col.); 29 cm.
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M.A.
Program:Art History
Date:2009
Thesis Supervisor(s):Jim, Alice Ming Wai
Identification Number:LE 3 C66A35M 2009 V47
ID Code:976582
Deposited By: Concordia University Library
Deposited On:22 Jan 2013 16:28
Last Modified:13 Jul 2020 20:10
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