Observed: Hypervisibility and Reclamation

Mar 22 – Apr 26

Curator Talk & Opening Reception, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery

Friday, March 22, 4:30-7pm

Roundtable Discussion, VCAM Screening Room

Wednesday, April 17, 4:30pm

The roundtable will be a discussion between visionary leaders who have been organizing around true methods of community safety and alternatives to mass surveillance in their respective communities.

Featuring:

Devren Washington, Organizing Director, People’s Tech Project
Nancy Parker, Executive Director, Detroit Justice Center
Hamid Khan, Organizer, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition
Chris Gilliard, Just Tech Fellow, Social Science Research Council
Moderated by Tawana Petty, Founding Executive Director, Petty Propolis

What does it mean to be seen? To be watched? Are there consequences for collapsing the two? Observed: Hypervisibility and Reclamation explores the contradictions we face when surveillance is conflated with safety; when law enforcement agencies, governments, businesses, and institutions leverage digital and biometric technologies to track us, as well as our resistance and community responses. Using examples from Detroit, we dive deeper into the web of privatized surveillance and militarized security forces who use biometric technologies proven to cause harm, in particular the disenfranchisement of people of color. We also recognize Detroit as a birthplace of many revolutionary movements by shining a light on resistance organizing and community responses that ensure collective and communal safety. This exhibition features the work of Tawana Petty, Halima Afi Cassells, Kate Levy, Shanna Merola, en sawyer, and poets from around the world; artists whose work addresses these topics through spoken word, collage, projection, installation, and design.

This exhibition includes a strobe effect

Observed: Hypervisibility and Reclamation is organized in conjunction with the Hurford Center’s 2023-24 Faculty Seminar, “Technology & Justice: Mediating Communities,” led by Sorelle Friedler and Laura McGrane. The exhibition is made possible with support from The John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and is co-funded by the Haverford College Initiative for Ethical Engagement and Leadership (IEEL)