Sorting Daemons: Art, Surveillance Regimes and Social Control



Sorting Daemons was mounted at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University (Kingston) from 16 January to 18 April 2010. From the exhibition’s publicity release: “Information-gathering systems increasingly affect our lives, tracking our movement and consumer preferences. Such “sorting daemons” reinforce existing streams of influence and quietly create new ones. The artists in this exhibition take measure of our relationship to surveillance by addressing its social, political and aesthetic dimensions.” This exhibition was developed in partnership with The New Transparency and opened in conjunction with “Camera Surveillance in Canada: A Research Workshop” at Queen’s University, Kingston that took place 14-16 January 2010.

Artists and artworks:

  • Brenda Goldstein, Panopticon, 2003, DVD.
  • Antonia Hirsch, The Invisible Hand (after Adam Smith), 2009, surveillance mirrors.
  • Dave Kemp, Data Collection, 2009, photographic installation.
  • Tran T. Kim-Trang, Ocularis: Eye Surrogates, 1997, DVD.
  • Germaine Koh and Ian Verchere, Broken Arrow, version 2, 2009, electronics and custom software.
  • Arnold Koroshegyi, Rupture, 2008, 6-minuted looped video installation.
  • Ruthann Lee, Trying to Concentrate, 2004, DVD.
  • Michael Lewis, Some will take more prodding. Others will be more difficult, 2008, oil on canvas.
  • Jill Magid, Evidence Locker: Trust, 2004, DVD and book.
  • Walid Ra’ad, Part 3: Miraculous Beginnings, The Dead Weight of a Quarrel Hangs, 1999, DVD.
  • Kathleen Ritter, Hidden Camera, 2006, Pigment print.
  • David Rokeby, Sorting Daemon, 2003, computer, LCD screen, camera, and projection.
  • Tom Sherman, SUB/EXTROS (1), SUB/EXTROS (2), SUB/EXTROS (3), 2001, DVD.
  • Cheryl Sourkes, Cam Cities, Virtual Toronto, 2001, inkjet on unstretched exterior vinyl banner, steel bar.
  • John Watt, Scannex Man, 1981, DVD.
Client:Cover of exhibition catalogue, 2010.