The Intangible Gaze of Surveillance and Material Marks of Oppression

The presentation analyses creative works “Architecture of Evidence and Surveillance” by the Ukrainian artist Valentyn Odnoviun who lives and works in Lithuania. The main argument is that author’s works shift the prevailing understanding of digital technologies as being the tool for dispersed and softer power. Odnoviun’s works reveal that seemingly intangible digital surveillance leads to the same physical repressions and corporeal suffering as the surveillance in pre-digital era.

Valentyn Odnoviun. From the project “Architecture of Evidence”. 2019

Tomas Pabedinskas holds the positions of Associate Professor at the Vytautas Magnus University Faculty of Arts and Head of the Department of Contemporary Arts where he teaches photography and visual culture. He also works as an independent photography critic and has published two monographs on contemporary Lithuanian photography.

Photo by Ričardas Šileika