“Surveillance Games” profiled at Downtown Eastside gallery
Richard Smith, smith@sfu.ca
Carmen Hung, 778.882.4923, ckh3@sfu.ca
Julie Ovenell-Carter, PAMR, 778.782.3210, joc@sfu.ca
As Vancouver prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, surveillance cameras are popping up like mushrooms around the city. A new Simon Fraser University-sponsored art exhibit asks the question: what are the social, political and economic implications of all those candid cameras?
In cooperation with the Vancouver Public Space Network, SFU’s School of Communication will present Surveilling Public Space: Perspectives on Spectacle, Nov. 18-21 at the Interurban Gallery, 1 E. Hastings St. in downtown Vancouver.
The free show features the work of more than 20 local and international artists whose mixed-media installations explore the controversial theme of increased video surveillance in contemporary society.
The exhibit coincides with “The Surveillance Games,” an international research workshop organized by the Surveillance Study Centre at Queen’s University that will be hosted Nov. 20-21 on the doorstep of the 2010 Games at SFU’s Harbour Centre campus.
SFU Communication professor Richard Smith is one of the organizers of the event, which will assemble leading thinkers on the subject of security and surveillance.
“Surveillance isn’t antithetical to democracy,” he says, “but it can erode key freedoms. We must therefore engage in a full and frank discussion about the costs and benefits of surveillance and I’m confident this workshop and art show will help initiate that conversation.”
“Surveilling Public Space: Perspectives on Spectacle” opens Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 7 pm at the Interurban Gallery, 1 E. Hastings St. All are welcome. RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=159903682354&v=app_2344061033
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