Ludic encounters – understanding surveillance through game metaphors

ABSTRACT

This article explores the connections between game studies and surveillance studies. Although much of previous research analyzes surveillance as an oppressive practice, a more critical approach has recently identified the playful and enjoyable sides of watching and exposing. Surveillance in fact has many playful and game-like functions, which have not yet been addressed in their full extent. In this article, the vocabulary of play and game is used in order to uncover these game-like functions or surveillance practices. Five distinct game metaphors are presented: (1) cat-and-mouse, (2) hide-and-seek, (3) labyrinth, (4) sleight-of-hand and (5) poker. These metaphors reveal connections between enjoyment and control. Their implications are discussed both in urban settings and in virtual surroundings. In this article it is argued that faking, tricking and camouflaging have become persistent elements of urban and virtual cultures. There is no single authority watching, nor single context of surveillance and/or play. Rather, there are multiple players with variable motives. Examining the game elements of surveillance facilitates a broader understanding of how this practice moves beyond power and discipline. It also shows how surveillance and games are more intertwined than might have previously been recognized.

KEYWORDS:

• Surveillance/privacy
• gaming
• interactivity
• social theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Hille Koskela is a professor of Human Geography in University of Turku, Finland. Her research interests include video surveillance and the politics of control, the emotional experience of being watched and the responsibilization of the public in contributing to surveillance. She has published articles in journals such as Surveillance and Society, Crime Media Culture and Theoretical Criminology, and contributed to several international anthologies. Her current research deals with webcams, surveillance, urban security politics, subcultures and emotional space. [email: [email protected]]

Liisa A. Mäkinen is a Social and Public Policy Ph.D. student in University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests include participatory and domestic surveillance and the gamification of surveillance practices. Her dissertation research examines the ways people conduct surveillance in their everyday life; especially the surveillant usages of webcams/surveillance cameras linked online and the playful visual surveillance they permit. [email: [email protected]]

Notes

1. The UK-based Internet Eyes site (http://www.interneteyes.co.uk/index.html) was closed September 2013. However, similar site (http://www.interneteyes.net/) operating in Brazil has opened in April 2015.

2. Texas Virtual Border Watch Programme (www.blueservo.net) is no longer funded and the site has been shut down.

3. See, for example, the video ‘Anonymous releases how to instructions on fooling facial recognition’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6zxq4SY8Gs and the page ‘CV Dazzles Style Tips for Reclaiming Privacy’ http://cvdazzle.com/

4. These sites can also be used to ‘test’ or to express different facets of one's own identity, as some features might not be perceived as suitable in offline social contexts.