While doing my best to shake off digital guilt, I’ve been slowly reading through the backlog of weeks of unread blogs in my spare time. We Make Money Not Art had a great commentary, Panoptic Insecurity, on an installation entitled Gun Control.
Gun Control is an electromechanical installation, which explores underlying issues of both security and surveillance. Each of the four units incorporates a police-issue revolver and a small video camera. As people move into the installation space, the cameras track the movement and the guns follow. However, the technology is imperfect. The cameras do not always function properly. The revolvers point at different targets. They sometimes twirl about playfully. The armatures shake and rattle. We are directly in the line of fire. This piece raises questions about our security-surveillance apparatus by prompting a visceral reaction.
Beautiful and reactionary, and unsettling in a very proper and emotionally manipulative way. And the message is so good.