The home under surveillance: A tripartite assemblage

Abstract

The home is perceived as an enclave of privacy and retreat from the proliferation of surveillance technologies in the spaces of public and semi-public life. Yet the past years have seen a rapid growth in the development and marketing of smart surveillance systems for domestic use that promise to protect both family and property. As a result, the understanding of 'home' as a place for respite and as an enclave of autonomy is being challenged as residents find themselves continuously under observation. This study reads the experience of surveilling and of being surveilled within one's private domain as different from that of being watched and monitored on the street, in the mall, or at the office. With the understanding that new assemblages-namely social entities constructed from heterogeneous parts-are formed as humans engage with new technical artefacts, it becomes apparent that a unique tripartite amalgamation of technology, humans and space/place is brought into being by the installation of domestic surveillance systems by residents in their homes. Moving beyond approaches that examine the social contexts from which these technologies emerge and their cultural consequences, the current study investigates the new ontologies of home, technology, and of surveillance itself rewritten in the automated, smart home. Surveillance is shown as altering the notion of home as place, and of setting the home as the site of action and activity. Moreover, an ontological shift takes place in our understanding of surveillance as many of its binary paradigms are destabilized. © The author, 2012.