American artist and researcher Julia Scher’s central focus across works is surveillance and the cyber-sphere. Scher uses installation as her primary medium, often comprised of digital and physical materials, inviting audiences to actively participate in surveillance culture. The work questions the ethics, effects, psychology and aesthetics of modern surveillance systems, interrogating the use and misuse of surveillance technology.
“Security by Julia”
“Security by Julia” is a series of immersive installation works, centred around security and control. I see “Security by Julia” as a crucial body of work within contemporary installation art, a portrait of surveillance culture mapped throughout time, allowing audiences to confront society’s most pressing ethical dilemma. Scher describes her work to be landscapes, a preservation of the social and cultural happening at any given time, often her works have as much (if not more) relevance retrospectively.
It is not documented how many “Security by Julia” exist. When looking at Julia Scher’s website, the minimal information was unsurprising. To me, it makes perfect sense that an artist who works with such a material theme as surveillance would not want to engage further with the subject through the means of the internet.
“Security by Julia IX” (1991) “Security by Julia X” (1991)
“Security By Julia XLV” (2002), reexhibited in Ortuzar gallery (New York) in 2024, uses sound, light, live video feed, fans, chainlink fencing, fabric, and text.
The installation physically confines the audience, flashing red lights symbolising danger, whirling ceiling fans reminiscent of helicopters, live cameras monitor and capture their movements, which is then played back on televisions; the televisions also display the work being destroyed. A female voice, somewhat robotic and authoritarian, speaks, “This is not a test site, this is a battle with security.” The unseen commander heightens anxiety and reinforces ideas of state control executed through surveillance technology.
The feminisation of ‘Security by Julia’ is central in my interest in them. Through the use of colour the theme of surveillance is presented more directly than how we experience it typically, instead of obscuring security objects and trying to let them fade into the background, Scher uses pink to highlight her security systems. Some of the works in the series feature performance of security guards, always women, by disrupting a dominantly male industry Scher disrupts the typical experience audiences have of security, allowing for critical engagement with the themes of the work.
Scher’s work confronts the concept of surveillance as a whole through installation art, I plan to explore surveillance of a specific site through sound based installation. The presentation of technology, specifically the wires, is interesting to consider for all installation art. In this instance, as surveillance technology typically aims to be covert and concealed, by exposing the technology it further disrupts the audiences preconceived idea of security. I find the use of an automated voice inspiring for this project, taking the human out of a theme so intrinsically connected to technology and data is a way to reinforce typical uses of security technology.