Haunting surveillance: Foregrounding the spectre of the medium in CCTV and military drones

Abstract

Even in the age of fake news, alternative facts and deep fakes, digital surveillance media are valued for their documentary stance. CCTV and military drone footage are relied on for evidence of potential deviances. While exposing these media shortcomings in producing reliable evidence, I map video surveillance’s medium-specific instances of production of otherworldly visual phenomena with apparently no referent in material reality. This article consists of an exposition of my artistic research approach to modes of image production, which compare ghost sightings captured by spirit photography to those recorded/produced by contemporary surveillance media, to unveil the social and political impact of non-transparent image-producing mediators.