Sorting Daemons: Art, Surveillance Regimes and Social Control

Jan Allen (ed.), with contributions by Kirsty Robertson and Sarah E.K. Smith.

Information-gathering systems increasingly affect lives, tracking movements and consumer preferences. Such sorting daemons subtly reinforce existing streams of influence and create new ones. This publication presents the work of sixteen artists who address the social, psychological, political and aesthetic dimensions of surveillance systems. The catalogue includes critical essays on the culture of surveillance, social sorting, data-aesthetics and evolving understandings of surveillance regimes. Participating artists include Antonia Hirsch, Tran T. Kim-Trang, Germaine Koh and Ian Verchere, Michael Lewis, Walid Raad, David Rokeby, and Cheryl Sourkes.