False Positives

Esther Hovers’ interest lies in the unwieldy relationship between individual rights and national security, and focuses on the use of intelligent surveillance technology in public space. Within our global political climate the need for heightened public protection is only increasing. In the past decade, surveillance technology has become woven into our public spaces, part and parcel of everyday life. While its emergence certainly sparked public debate, many of the discussions held around this issue have been characterized by a polarisation of privacy and security, reducing a complex and multilayered debate into a matter of ‘either / or’ in the name of public safety. In its most simple terms, privacy is defined as the right to do things without being observed. Yet in its full, embodied form, it is a social practice. A concept that spans the realms of ethics, psychology, philosophy and policy, bridging the personal and the political, in both the physical and the digital world – one that demands broader consideration and protection.

Opening a transparent dialogue about the development and implementation of surveillance technology has never been more urgent, particularly due to the speed at which it is evolving. As it hurtles forward with the development of sophisticated facial recognition software and video analytics – beyond our imagination and, on a more basic and perhaps more worrying level, our comprehension – we are at risk of casting aside some of our most invaluable human rights. Taking this friction as her point of departure, Hovers’ False Positives can be seen as a gesture to make this largely intangible process visible; an invitation to reflect on the process, effects and, most importantly, fallacies of a system that by its very nature conceals itself from us. It is a visual attempt to bridge the gaping chasm between the technology that has inconspicuously become our ‘new normal’ and our understanding of it.