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Smart cities and the politics of urban surveillance

Leo Cardinaal and Styliani Theocharidou

Looking at a series of art projects, Leo Cardinaal and Styliani Theocharidou seek to figure out how artists engage with “watching” and with “being watchers”. How do they contribute to discourses on the racial biases in acts of watching, and acts of voyeurism? In short, they discuss some the effects of digital surveillance on public space in smart cities, and how artists engage with these. 

Read the essay (PDF, 2MB)

Leo Cardinaal is a master’s student of Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology at Maastricht University. His bachelor’s in arts & Culture focused a large variety of topics, ranging from political culture to gender studies. His current research focus is on how available technologies mediate cultural interaction. 

Styliani Theocharidou is a master’s student of Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology at Maastricht University. She has a background in Journalism and Political Science with a trajectory of feminism and human rights. Having a fascination with AI, her work now focuses on the intersection of feminism, human rights and AI technology, looking at Human-Computer Interaction.