You don’t own the news, even if it happens to you. You don’t own history. It’s part of the collective record now. - The Circle by Dave Eggers

Video cameras in banks, department stores, and public spaces; algorithm-driven advertising and persistent cookies on the Internet; government data collection and private private cloud data storage—permanent surveillance and data sharing have become a fact of life in the modern world. Every day, we use Google Maps, watch live streams online, keep track of our progress in health apps, and discover new and unprecedented possibilities for self-monitoring. We follow our friends and even complete strangers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram—and are being tracked constantly in these apps at the same time. We benefit so much from the new digital technologies and services that we willingly surrender our privacy and allow our lives to become ever more public and commercialized. Complete connectivity? Total transparency? Big Brother is watching you. Or if not Big Brother, then who?

Surveillance has become a major issue of public concern in recent years. Sociologists, psychologists, legal experts, politicians, and artists are examining diverse forms of surveillance and their effects on both the individual and entire groups. They are addressing questions of the private sphere and the potential threats of government and private surveillance to the individual, and are engaging critically and creatively with various forms of everyday surveillance as a constitutive part of social life. These sweeping developments raise the question: How is surveillance affecting the emergence of new artistic works? And how can contemporary art and media theory contribute to a better understanding of our modern surveillance society?

With the event series “Watched!”, C/O Berlin and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation seek to address this important question by presenting different commentaries and reactions from contemporary art and from media experts. They will discuss aspects of surveillance in seven thematic blocks: Privacy vs. Street Photography, The Changing Gaze—From Observation to Surveillance, Taboo: Child Photography, The Public Self, Power on the Internet, Safe/Unsafe, andSurveillance Systems.

Announcements of the individual events, participants, and dates will be published in the weeks to come. The series will serve as the thematic prelude to an exhibition project of the same name that C/O Berlin will be presenting together with the Museum for Photography Berlin from February to May 2017.

C/O Berlin Foundation
Amerika Haus . Hardenbergstraße 22–24 . 10623 Berlin Tel +49.30.284.44 16-62 . Opening Hours

Exhibition space . Daily 11 am – 8 pm 
Café . Daily 10 am – 8 pm