'Domestic Surveillance'- Public Launch, Valentine's Day 2009

Domestic Surveillance, a performative project for the web by The Bridge Club, went live and was publicized to the internet and artistic communities on February 14, 2009. The project site is located online at www.resistlooking.net

The Domestic Surveillance project site presents the viewer with four simultaneous video feeds, depicting four women engaged in mundane activity in an ambiguous domestic setting. The visual confines of the camera's lens invoke the viewer's familiarity with two ubiquitous cultural institutions: first, the security cameras used by a guard or convenience store to simultaneously monitor limited visual fields; and second, the teasing visual feed presented through webcam technologies, often marketed through subscription access to viewers hoping for a glimpse of something illicit. These dual references conflate power relationships and generate uncertainty about the roles of captor, captive, voyeur, and subject.

A secondary and invisible aspect of the project is borne out of intrigue with the internet search engine's role as curator, grouping sites with disparate content via shared keywords. Data is being collected about site traffic, including individual users' length of time spent viewing, repeat visits, and method of finding the site (i.e., links and search terms). The project site itself, however, contains no links back to The Bridge Club as originators, nor any acknowledgment of the site as an artistic inquiry. The site itself exists and behaves exclusively as camera display.

Domestic Surveillance acknowledges the inherent, uncomfortable eroticism in both watching the unsuspecting and in the possibility of being watched, and invokes themes of surveillance, voyeurism, captivity, aggression, and visual power.

www.resistlooking.net