Reversed Surveillance

In January 2023, the French government passed a law authorizing the use of algorithmic video surveillance (AVS) as a legal measure for crowd control at any gathering of more than 300 people. 

This technology is being implemented to automate the crime detection process, as it is capable of capturing characteristics that escape the human eye. Artificial intelligence determines who is a suspect and who is not. Emotion recognition is similar to facial recognition, but instead of focusing on identity recognition, its goal is to decode a person’s internal emotional state. In this case, artificial intelligence is trained to detect, analyze, and decode human behavioral patterns associated with emotions.

using a three-hour live broadcast of a recent protest in France, the artist employs video content analysis software to analyze the crowd and identify the faces of more than 30,000 people. Using AI trained to recognize seven facial expressions associated with specific emotions, the artist categorizes the protesters based on the emotional state assigned to them by the artificial intelligence. This process allows the artist to visualize how AI interprets a protest. There are currently no records of emotion recognition being used in decisions affecting protesters. However, this technology is widely used by companies to monitor their employees.

The ever-evolving nature of surveillance technologies, combined with the normalization resulting from the ease with which these technologies are introduced into legislation, poses a threat to the rights to assembly, protest, and free speech. This becomes extremely concerning when technology is tasked with deciphering something about human nature and is used to make decisions based on probability rather than on actual events. Ultimately, Marcel Top is creating a facial recognition tool to identify police officers during protests. By harnessing the power of surveillance technologies, Top is attempting to create new tools to expose the dangers of these technologies as well as to use them to our advantage.