Surveillance and the Citizen

Live Arts Bard presents:
We’re Watching, A Performance Exhibition

In partnership with the Goethe-Institut

April 27-30, 2017

The processes and technologies of surveillance has redefined the nature of contemporary human life and society. In our interactions with government, law enforcement, corporations, and each other, we live in a constant state of watching, and being watched – with varying degrees of visibility and consciousness.    

How has the digital age redefined our sense of a private life? What is the impact of government surveillance on our relationship with the state, and the meaning of citizenship? Is surveillance technology causing a shift in human consciousness? These are some of the defining questions of our age, challenging and changing fundamental aspects of our lives with unfathomable speed and complexity. In order to explore their staggering implications, Bard College has embarked on a two-year interdisciplinary program of art and inquiry, Surveillance and the Citizen, in partnership with the Goethe-Institut New York. The program is an initiative of Live Arts Bard and the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, in collaboration with departments and centers across the Bard network, including Bard College Berlin, the Arendt Center, and the Experimental Humanities concentration. Surveillance and the Citizen includes conferences, workshops, public events, and academic courses at Bard’s campuses in Annandale-on-Hudson and Berlin, and at the Goethe Institut in New York.

The two-year program will culminate with a major exhibition of installation and performance, We’re Watching, at the Fisher Center, April 27-30 2017. Seven new artworks by major American artists will be installed and performed in playful and unexpected ways throughout Frank Gehry’s landmark performing arts center, creating a unique festival of contemporary surveillance art.
 
We’re Watching includes works by Claudia Rankine, Will Rawls, and John Lucas; Big Art Group; Alexandro Segade; Annie Dorsen; Hasan Elahi; Michelle Ellsworth; and Samuel Miller.