Surveillance Learning / 學習監視

在本次提出的系列配置中，我將16支監視攝影機並列排放，並且於各攝影機前方夾持我預先準備好的、拍攝於本次展覽空間中那些適合設置監視器的位置之觀看視野的影像輸出—–我稱之為教材，使其呈現一種「學習狀態」：學員面同一方向，齊肩併座、接受學習目標內容的灌輸。僅有一張照片因為人為的疏失，使得場地的盆栽無意間進入了攝影機的視野。

在過去三件系列實踐中，監視攝影機是監視人員的視覺延伸，如同義眼強化觀看能力的同時，也代表著監視人員的權力延伸進入空間。而在本次提出的「學習監視」中，我嘗試引進一些類似人員訓練的模擬。在本次的配置下，監視攝影機或許不再是某一個監視人員的義眼，鏡頭所要成為的是攝影機自己的眼睛。而當身為觀眾的我們，在場地外圍觀看攝影機的觀看時，我們不是在觀看自己的監視，而是監視它人的觀看。觀眾才是監視器。

In the configuration presented in this series, I arranged sixteen surveillance cameras in a row. In front of each camera, I placed a printed image—what I call instructional material—showing the field of view that each camera would have had if installed in the exhibition space at positions typically suited for surveillance. The alignment evokes a “learning state”: trainees facing the same direction, sitting shoulder to shoulder, receiving an identical set of instructional content. Only one photograph contains a visual anomaly—a potted plant accidentally entering the frame due to human oversight.

In my previous three works within this series, surveillance cameras functioned as the visual extensions of the surveillant. Like prosthetic eyes, they enhanced the viewer’s vision while simultaneously extending the viewer’s power into the space. In this new proposal, Learning Surveillance, I attempted to introduce a sense of simulated personnel training. Within this configuration, the cameras are no longer prosthetic eyes of a human operator; rather, the lens becomes the camera’s own eye.

As viewers standing outside the installation and observing the cameras’ act of “looking,” we are no longer watching our own surveillance. Instead, we are witnessing the surveillance of someone else’s gaze. In this scenario, it is the viewers who become the surveillant.