In the 21st century, with the ubiquity of digital imaging, the omnipresence of the internet as a means of exchange, and the rise of artificial intelligence, we face a new era where the camera is now an active participant in the role of seeing. Imagery and photography are being significantly used to control our lives. Yet, this massive ideological paradigm shift in image-making and interpretation remains invisible to most.
My work investigates the various ways in which visual technology transforms, commodifies, and regulates our lives – with specific attention devoted to the notion of privacy. The average person is largely unaware of the ways in which image-based technology is invading their private sphere; actively dismantling any reasonable expectation of privacy. If these systems remain unseen than how will this average citizen begin to understand how they are affected?
These invisible technological systems are turned visible through my work for the viewer so they can understand the constraints placed on their lives. My work uses image- making in a performative way to interact with these technological tools of control to make the viewer aware of the convoluted architecture and infrastructure of machine vision and the authority embedded within. I intentionally misuse, re-imagine, and repurpose a variety of surveillance technology to create my photographic work. I actively subvert the original intention of this technology through my art as an act of protest.
Algorithms, neural networks, and the language of the computer are transformed into artwork that relies on pictorial traditions for the viewer to more easily grasp the information they are receiving. My work turns the abstract and intangible into something material for the viewer to recognize and interpret. This process of transformation is central for the viewer to understand the politics entrenched in this technological battleground.
Ultimately, at the core of my work is an interrogation of the reliance on this visual technology as a mechanism of power and what this means for our future as we rely on automated computer programming. There are irreparable consequences surveillance technology has on us as a global society and the 21st century requires a new form of visual literacy to understand what is at stake.
About Marcus DiSieno
Marcus DeSieno is a visual artist interrogating institutions of power through the language of photography. DeSieno is particularly interested in documenting the continued legacies of American Empire and how visual technology is used as a tool of oppression by the State. DeSieno often uses specific historic and experimental analog photographic processes to create conversations between power and history. He received his MFA in Studio Art from the University of South Florida and is currently Associate Professor of Photography at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington.
DeSieno’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Aperture Foundation in New York, Paris Photo, The Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece, The Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, Finland, Photo Access in Canberra, Australia, Center for Fine Art Photography, Candela Gallery, Center for Photography at Woodstock, and various other galleries and museums. His work has also been featured in a variety of publications including The British Journal of Photography, The Boston Globe, FeatureShoot, GUP Magazine, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, National Geographic, PDN, Slate, Smithsonian Magazine, The Washington Post, and Wired. DeSieno was named a selection for Photolucida’s Critical Mass 50 and an Emerging Talent by Lensculture. His first monograph, No Man’s Land: Views From a Surveillance State, was published by Daylight Books.
