Body

For those QR code Hunters!

Welcome to the Waterloo Watchmen surveillance blog! Waterloo Watchmen is dedicated to researching, exposing, and discussing the prevalence of surveillance across UW. Below you will find a brief description of the surveillance technology in your immediate environment as well as a theoretical inquiry to get you thinking! To the right of your screen, you will find an archive menu of previous posts discussing a broad range of campus locations and theoretical perspectives. We invite you to explore this website and join the conversation!

Irrational Signifiers

Humanity has been aware of the limitations of embodiment since around the same time the first tool was invented. The pragmatics of invention call upon a need; in the tool's case, the ability to overcome an obstacle that the body cannot naturally. The development of technology is then the willful admission that the body cannot do something. Surveillance technology not only emphasizes corporeal obsolescence, but also asks for the body to merit its existence. Like a caged monkey, the surveilled body is a disciplined performer called upon to dance in order signify its relevance. In front of the camera, and under the gaze of technology, pornography becomes a demonstration of the sensuality that technology cannot imitate; athletic sports, the interplay between instinct, mechanics and competitive human will; dance, the gestural expression of emotion and narrative. The eroticization of flesh reduces the body to a set of signifiers which convey emotional response.


Empricised Discipline

Through a coordination of monitoring systems and information graphics the modernist obsession over rationalization and control is realized. Engineering students are offered the benefit of knowing which computers to use and at what time to use them in order to mitigate strain on public resources and increase productivity. However, this techno-capitalist narrative is a form of coerced enslavement by technology whose testament to success is complicit silence. Technology is used to improve life which revolves around the creation of additional technologies. But where are the indicators which mark the decay of the body in this process? The contemporary engineer is asked to be productive through physical inactivity when sitting in front of a computer. The neglected body withers away as unused muscle loses tone. Additionally, the functions of the body are reduced as "work" becomes the domain of the mind and computer. We produce ourselves into obsolescence. The technology that is created enhances our ability to overcome obstacles in our immediate environment better than our body can. We re-produce ourselves into obsolescence. The economies of technology begin to conspire when one technology is used to enhance another. This interaction affords the production of technology on a larger scale. We mass re-produce ourselves into obsolescence.