 |
Issue no. 43 - 44 |
| Theme: Constant Capture | |
| Editor(s): Jon McKenzie, Lane Hall | |
| Language: English | |
| Description: | |
| The tension between security and liberty has a long history, but it has come to the fore in new ways in the wake of the September 11th attacks in America and amidst the ongoing “global war on terror,” a war launched by the United States but also drawing in many other states, even if they only use it as cover for their own internal repression and violence. Individuals from around the world have been subjected to “extraordinary rendition,” whereby they are illegally abducted, detained, and flown by US operatives to far- flung “black sites” for interrogation and torture. Such renditions have sometimes involved European democratic governments, leaving one to wonder which is worse: whether elected officials knew of these operations or whether they did not, in which case their security agencies acted on their own. The heightened and increasingly high-tech tension between security and liberty has arguably come to define the early 21st century world, where security cameras, satellite imaging, datamining systems, and other technologies create a global surveillance network seemingly capable of constantly capturing one’s every move and transaction—hence the name of this issue: Constant Capture. How can one be free in a world of constant capture, a world where the incessant capture of one’s image or data may lead to the capture of one’s body and identity? |
top