#  Surveillance: From Vision to Data 

 



       ![20230922_115815.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum6316/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/chsi/files/20230922_115815.jpg?itok=VwdRbPcy) 

 

 



 

 



 

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   ![Surveillance: From Vision to Data](/sites/g/files/omnuum6316/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/chsi/files/surveillance_logo.png?itok=o01OieFE) 

 

This timely exhibit considers surveillance beyond the realm of cameras and their watchers, exposing the profound influence of data. Learn about the historical instruments that have been used to transform individuals and landscapes into data. Uncover how powerful entities, from colonial empires to U.S. intelligence agencies, have harnessed surveillance data to produce and perpetuate social hierarchies. Immerse yourself in interactive critical artworks that challenge and resist surveillance through data. Look beyond vision and toward data to reveal an elusive, and now ubiquitous, form of visibility.



 

####  Curatorial Statements 

 



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###    Aaron Gluck-Thaler  expand\_more  

 

 "Surveillance is often understood through its most visible forms, from cameras to prying eyes. This exhibition foregrounds a more complex history. Surveillance depends on data: technologies for producing data, techniques for analyzing data, and ways of making sense of data. *Surveillance: From Vision to Data* assembles a diverse collection of scientific instruments and places them into their multiple historical contexts. What emerges from their intertwined histories is unmistakable. The history of surveillance is inseparable from scientific knowledge production about data, with enduring consequences for how people and the world become known today."



 

 

 



###    Matt Goerzen  expand\_more  

 

 "*Surveillance: From Vision to Data* explores how the data produced through surveillance practices can serve a range of outcomes. A single dataset can be made to mean different things—as when measurements of human bodies are used to support contradictory conclusions, or when an individual’s self-collected health data is suddenly deployed against them in a legal proceeding. The historical narratives and artistic works in the exhibition help us tease out other provocative questions: why are some data acted upon and other data conveniently ignored? And what is at stake when data are not produced at all?”



 

 

 



###    Carolyn Bailey  expand\_more  

 

 "Surveillance mediates many aspects of public and private life. While we tend to think of surveillance technologies as tools of control, they are also tools of witnessing and entertainment. Many of us knowingly use digital apps that violate our privacy because they are fun or offer new insights that allow us to know ourselves and others better. In questioning the historical role of data surveillance practices in shaping the world around us, the exhibition also examines how we adapt to them. Collectively, the works and artists in *Surveillance: From Vision to Data* explore how these tools and technologies can be used, critiqued, and subverted.”



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

**ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS**  
  
  
**This Exhibit Made Possible By:**  
  
The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments  
The Harvard Museums of Science & Culture  
The Department of the History of Science, Harvard University  
  
**With Additional Support From:**  
  
The Peabody Museum of Anthropology & Ethnology, Harvard University  
The Warren Anatomical Museum, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School  
Houghton Library, Harvard University  
Harvard Art Museums  
  
**Special Thanks To:**  
  
Aaron Gluck-Thaler, Curator  
Carolyn Bailey, Curator  
Matt Goerzen, Curator  
Peter Galison  
Hannah Marcus  
Jan Sacco  
Diana Loren  
Gabriella Coleman  
Evelynn Hammonds  
Rebecca Lemov  
Brandi Collins-Dexter  
Lachlan Kermode  
The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

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**SURVEILLANCE RELATED PROGRAMMING**

  
[September 20: HMSC Connects Podcast](https://tinyurl.com/2p8my8mp)  
   
[PRESS RELEASE for "Surveillance...".](https://hmsc.harvard.edu/2023/08/28/surveillance-from-vision-to-data-poses-timely-questions-about-the-history-of-surveillance/)

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**September 22, 2023 - June 23, 2024**



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Past Exhibitions ](/exhibition-status/past-exhibitions)