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.