Outperforming activism: reflections on the demise of the surveillance camera players

Abstract

When the Surveillance Camera Players disbanded in 2006 after a decade of political activist theatre on the streets of New York City, they had already achieved international recognition for a unique style of performance that focused on the numerous ways in which surveillance cameras undercut long-established notions of privacy and consent. Beyond that important focus, however, this essay paper suggests that the Surveillance Camera Players pursued a mode of performance activism that underestimated the ways that surveillance technologies themselves perform. Understanding how those technologies perform and how they continue to evolve through those performances, the essay argues, is an indispensible prerequisite for an effective activism against a society that is increasingly structured by the tools, mechanisms and technologies of surveillance.