Sensing Security Through Contemporary Art and Ethnographic Encounters
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Sensing Security through Contemporary Art and Ethnographic Encounters A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Jena M. Seiler December 2017 © 2017 Jena M. Seiler . All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Sensing Security through Contemporary Art and Ethnographic Encounters by JENA M. SEILER has been approved for Interdisciplinary Arts and the College of Fine Arts by Marina Peterson Associate Professor of School of Interdisciplinary Arts Matthew R. Shaftel Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT SEILER, JENA M., Ph.D., December 2017, Interdisciplinary Arts Sensing Security through Contemporary Art and Ethnographic Encounters Director of Dissertation: Marina Peterson This dissertation examines the sensory entanglements of security through an analysis of contemporary art and ethnographic encounters. I argue that the “securitization” of society does not only entail a multiplicity of actors and practices, as Marc Schuilenburg demonstrates, but sensory attunements that bring technologies, bodies, and spaces into security assemblages. The project is in line with recent scholarship on the senses in the social sciences and the humanities, what anthropologist David Howes identifies as the “sensory turn.” The project particularly resonates with the work of Tim Ingold and Davide Panagia as they argue that the senses are phenomenological, social, and political. This project extends this understanding of the senses to the topic of security. To analyze the sensory dimensions of security, I draw upon a diverse set of materials, including artworks, ethnographic research, news sources, industry trade journals, and official government materials. From this collection of material, I draw out sensory moments and lines of sensation, examining the ways that seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling are at work in security. In this project, “sensing security” holds three meanings: first, I use it to refer to the sensory technologies that increasingly have become a part of contemporary security and how security acts as a sensing mechanism. Second, it refers to the way security conditions the senses, instructing us on how to see, hear, and touch. Security discourse not only outline threats 4 but also teaches us to turn our bodies into security machines in order to identify suspicion and alert authorities: enlisting our eyes, for example, in the counterterrorism campaign “If You See Something, Say Something™.” Finally, by using this phrase I attempt to capture the work I do in the dissertation, as the project explicates, or senses out, the entangled sensory relations of security. 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Marina Peterson. Without her expertise, generosity, and guidance, this project could not have been realized. I would also like to thank my committee, Dr. Andrea Frohne, Dr. Samuel Dodd, and Dr. Yeong-Hyun Kim, for their critical contributions. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with, and learned from, this diverse group of scholars. I am indebted to the staff at the Columbus Museum of Art who accommodated my research needs and the Ohio University students who allowed me to interview them. Additionally, I am thankful to Tania El Khoury, Jen Urso, and Steve Badgett for sharing their artistic research with me. I am also grateful for the support I received from Dr. Jennie Klein and my colleagues in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Dustin Faulstick and Aili Seiler for reading selected chapters. Last, I would like to thank my family for their support. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 8 Introduction: Security Encounters ...................................................................................... 9 Security/Sensory/Space/Scholarship........................................................................... 14 Security and Surveillance ..................................................................................... 15 Sensation and the Senses ...................................................................................... 18 Space ..................................................................................................................... 22 Methodology: Analysis and Fieldwork ....................................................................... 24 Structure and Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 29 Chapter One: Desert to Drone: Visibility Conditions ........................................... 30 Chapter Two: Eyes on the Street: Embodied Security.......................................... 31 Chapter Three: Entering the Museum: Screening Visitors ................................... 32 Chapter Four: Securing the Border: Sensing Everything ..................................... 33 Chapter Five: Waves in the Air: Transducing Security ........................................ 34 Conclusion: Security Toward Other Ends ............................................................ 35 Chapter One: Desert to Drone: Visibility Conditions ....................................................... 36 Seeing into the Sun ..................................................................................................... 38 Desert Visibilities........................................................................................................ 50 Drone Vision ............................................................................................................... 61 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 72 Chapter Two: Eyes on the Street: Embodied Security...................................................... 74 The Panopticon, Surviallance Cameras, and the Body ............................................... 76 Opening to Security: Walking the Streets ................................................................... 83 A Highly “Suspicious” Encounter .............................................................................. 94 CCTV on the Streets: Appearing on Film................................................................. 105 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 114 Chapter Three: Securing the Museum: Terrorism, Embodiment, and the Economy...... 115 Entering the Museum: Geographies of Tourism and Terrorism ............................... 118 The Louvre, Paris, France ................................................................................... 120 7 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, United States ............. 132 Guarding the Museum: Engaging Visitors, Spotting Suspicion ............................... 139 Security Genius ................................................................................................... 140 SVOT: Screening Visitors by Observations Techniques .................................... 145 Sensing Security in the Museum............................................................................... 149 Security Structure: Assemblage .......................................................................... 154 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 159 Chapter Four: Securing the Border: Sensing Everything ............................................... 162 Sensing Border: Weeds, Devices, Bodies, and Animals .......................................... 164 Sensing Airport: Moving, Seeing, Smelling, and Smiling........................................ 181 If Your Eyes Were Sensitive to These Wavelengths Like the Scanners. ........... 189 That Nose Does More Security than Anything Else. .......................................... 198 I Definitely Try to Smile a Lot. .......................................................................... 200 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 207 Chapter Five: Waves in the Air: Transducing Security .................................................. 209 The Ether: “And Doth It Not Readily Pervade All Bodies?” ................................... 210 Transducing Electromagnetic Security ..................................................................... 216 Flickering Security Signals ................................................................................. 218 Hearing Security Waves ..................................................................................... 223 Seeing X-rays ...................................................................................................... 229 Medium Specificity ................................................................................................... 235 Atmosphere of Security ............................................................................................ 239 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................