We’re under surveillance. When we step out to the grocery store or file through airport security, drive down the turnpike or take a run after dark, a succession of cameras are always present, capturing our faces, the details of our mannerisms and the locations we leave empty. Deploying self-deprecating jokes, we play the ubiquity of cameras in everyday life as disposable selfies and boasts of social status, making our predicament the result of an inherently narcissistic culture rather than a status quo that operates beyond our control.
Tackling this constant surveillance is the Griffin Museum of Photography through its exhibition “Privacy is a Myth We Tell Ourselves to Sleep,” a collection of images by Washington-based artist Marcus DeSieno, one in a trilogy of exhibitions the museum is running through October 27, probing the blanketing oppression of surveillance mechanisms, digital distortion and the vast Wild West of artificial intelligence (AI).
The works in “Privacy is a Myth” are taken from two recent series by DeSieno: “No Man’s Land: Views From a Surveillance State” and “Recognition Patters: A Coded Gaze.” They slide next to each other seamlessly, the desolation of one complementing the unnerving aspects of the other.