ABSTRACT
Where does global visual politics meet surveillance? Surveillance relies on more than images. Images, as readers of this book will undoubtedly insist, can do much else besides assist in surveillance. So what is the connection between surveillance, politics and the image? Even if there are thousands of different visual surveillance systems in global politics, they all make one connection between politics and images: using images in surveillance relies on understanding images as facts, as transparent and objective copies of the world. This understanding of images is a particular one, and it relies on forgetting that images are also bewildering, subjective and unintelligible. Sometimes this understanding appears persuasive and sometimes not, yet visual surveillance relies on us forgetting the alternatives.
