Photo-surveillance and the emplaced déraciné

This article examines a defining tension between the meanings and values imposed on the production of place in photo-surveillance, which stems from its operation as a mode of deracinating emplacement. Photo-surveillance imbues specific places with significance, yet in doing so it subjects depicted individuals and events to processes of displacement. In light of this, the article takes as its starting point the following claims: what one might call the "place character" of photo-surveillance is defined operatively as a mode of subjection, and the subjects it produces are emplaced déraciné. Significantly, the article argues, this is true of both the normative forms and uses of photo-surveillance and artistic and critical practices that seek to intervene in these forms and uses. In order to understand photo-surveillance as a production of place, then, the article examines two art practices that intervene in surveillance culture and analyses the ways in which they foreground different modes of photo-surveillances deracinating emplacement.