Sorting Daemons: Art, Surveillance Regimes and Social Control

Information-gathering systems increasingly affect our lives, tracking our movement and consumer preferences. Such sorting daemons subtly reinforce existing streams of influence and create new ones. This publication presents the work of sixteen artists who address the social, psychological, political and aesthetic dimensions of surveillance systems. Writings on the artists and their works are accompanied by critical essays on the culture of surveillance, social sorting, data-aesthetics and our evolving understandings of and participation in surveillance regimes. Participating artists include Antonia Hirsch, Tran T. Kim-Trang, Germaine Koh and Ian Verchere, Michael Lewis, Walid Raad, David Rokeby and Cheryl Sourkes.