How do we maintain our autonomy when we move through public space? How can we meaningfully engage with the often invisible systems of surveillance we’re implicated in on a daily basis? These questions are central to the exhibition Rendering Realities. Rendering Realities is part of the Big Brother Awards 2016. Opening November 14 with works by Timo Arnall, Paolo Cirio, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Dries Depoorter, Hasan Elahi, Roos Groothuizen, Jasper van Loenen and Leonardo Silvaggio.

The curator writes:
“The very workings of the system of punishment used to be a major spectacle. People were summoned as spectators, corpses of criminals were displayed near a crime scene for days, scaffolds and gallows were erected in public squares. By the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century the body as the major target of penal repression disappeared and instead the prisoner was to be held under permanent observation, constantly being reported on, recorded, and computed. This connection between criminality and visibility has continued but, arguably, has become inverted. Today, at a time when the NSA automatically targets encrypted emails for further investigation, it is the refusal and avoidance of surveillance and opting for anonymity that puts one under suspicion.

This state of visibility, of permanent observation, is one that we are implicated in on a daily basis, often seemingly voluntarily. This exhibition explores the way these larger systems of mass surveillance and perpetual suspicion impact the ways in which we can navigate through and act in our environments.” – Margarita Osipian

More info
Rendering Realities opens on Monday November 14 at 19:30, coinciding with the Big Brother Awards at Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. It is open on Tuesday November 15 and Wednesday November 16 from 12:00 to 18:00, with a workshop and artist talk on the evening of the 16th from 19:30 to 21:30 in collaboration with Hackers & Designers. Free entrance.