Loving Big Brother - Softcover

Mcgrath, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415275385 ISBN 13: 9780415275385

Publisher: Routledge, 2004

Synopsis

In Loving Big Brother the author tackles head on the overstated claims of the crime-prevention and anti-terrorism lobbies. But he also argues that we desire and enjoy surveillance, and that, if we can understand why this is, we may transform the effect it has on our lives. This book looks at a wide range of performance and visual artists, at popular TV shows and movies, and at our day-to-day encounters with surveillance, rooting its arguments in an accessible reading of cultural theory.

Constant scrutiny by surveillance cameras is usually seen as - at best - an invasion of privacy, and at worst an infringement of human rights. But in this radical new account of the uses of surveillance in art, performance and popular culture, John E McGrath sets out a surprizing alternative: a world where we have much to gain from the experience of being watched.

This iconoclastic book develops a notion of surveillance space - somewhere beyond the public and the private, somewhere we will all soon live. It's a place we're just beginning to understand.

About this title

About the Author:

John McGrath is currently Artistic Director of Contact Theatre in Manchester, and has spent the last ten years as a freelance director. He has a PhD from NYU (this project has come out of his doctoral dissertation), and has been previously published by Nick Hern and in The Guardian.

Review:

'An essential text for understanding the complexity of modern life under surveillance' - Prefix Photo

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0415275385
• ISBN 13: 9780415275385
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256