Cam It Up!


What kind of actor are you? Do you ham it up every time you spot a camera or are you one of the few remaining people not dreaming of reality TV stardom? Whatever your answer, it seems Westerners can never escape the panoptic gaze of surveillance cameras. 'Balance and Power: Performance and Surveillance in Video Art,' at the University of Illinois' Krannert Art Museum through January 1, explores both the sociology and art history of surveillance. Jam-packed with important artists ranging from Vito Acconci and Andy Warhol to Jenny Marketou and Antenna (with many in between), the show looks at seminal and newer performative projects 'in an attempt to understand the complex relationship between voluntary acting for the camera and involuntary taping by a camera on the part of power systems that have an interest in the movement of citizens.' Making these moves museum spectacles might add to this list of 'power systems,' but then again it seems to charge electronic art with bringing power to the people. - Marisa Olson