UCL FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Thursday 29 September, Friday 30 September, and Saturday 1 October 2011

At The Film Studies Space: The Centre for the Cultural History of the Moving Image

De Young Lecture Theatre and Anatomy Theatre

Medical Sciences and Anatomy Building, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

Keynote Lectures by Professor Tom Gunning, University of Chicago (Thursday, 6 p.m.)

and Professor Simon Cole, University of California, Irvine (Friday, 1:30 p.m.)

We are being watched. The amazing part is that we are no longer even surprised by this. The culture of surveillance increasingly surrounds us in Europe where omnipresent CCTV cameras remind us that nothing escapes the invisible gaze of those behind the lens. At UCL, we have long been surveyed by our founder, Jeremy Bentham, who sits in a wooden case in the lobby and peers out with glass eyes and a wax head: his own ‘icon’ body signals that he not only knew what surveillance meant but named it through his invention of the Panopticon. That imaginary device, which Bentham proposed would help ‘reform morals, preserve health, invigorate industry, diffuse instruction, and lighten public burdens,’ continues to be a resonant touchstone for questions about the way governments and private agencies keep watch over our interests--and theirs. This conference, held where Bentham goes on watching both literally and metaphorically, proposes to explore, broadly, the interdisciplinary frameworks for understanding modern surveillance and, particularly, how surveillance practices intersect with visual technologies and histories of culture.

THE CONFERENCE IS OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

For a provisional programme, conference registration details, and information for delegates, see www.autopsiesgroup.com

Registration is now open: www.autopsiesgroup.com/registration.html

The provisional programme is online here: www.autopsiesgroup.com/events.html

For further information, write to deadobjects@gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter at @cultofsurv  

and on Facebook (Cultures of Surveillance) at

www.facebook.com/pages/Cultures-of-Surveillance/167999413265074

The conference is sponsored by:

• UCL Graduate School
• UCL FIGS
• UCL SELCS
• UCL Research Challenges