Art History from Home: When did Video Become Art? On Surveillance

Online, via Zoom

Video's origins lie with the television and with CCTV/surveillance footage. It is video's relationship with surveillance, however, that has been its key source for technological growth and transformation. This Art History from Home session will examine how artists have wrestled with video's relationship with surveillance. Through an engagement with artists like Jill Magid, Ja'Tovia Gary, Thomas Allen Harris, Andrea Fraser, and others, we will explore how video art can be used to subvert the authoritative or watchful gaze inherent in surveillance footage. 

Ayanna Dozier is an artist, lecturer, curator, and scholar. She recently completed her Ph.D. in art history and communication studies at McGill University. She is the author of the 33 ⅓ book on Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope. She is currently a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney and a lecturer in the department of communication and media studies at Fordham University.