Challenging Black Box Technology Power Imbalances by Exposing Them: “Persuasive System” as a Prism for Decomposing Contemporary Surveillance

Abstract

This article contributes to the discussion around surveillance invisibility by engaging with the existing literature and discussing Salvatore Vitale’s “Persuasive System” installation as a case study. Based on the conceptualization of surveillance as a “black box,” the article frames power imbalances involved in biometrics and video surveillance technologies and shows how Vitale’s installation aims at playing with and exposing these dynamics by reconfiguring them.