Since the COVID-19 outbreak governments around the world have been quick to implement measures intended to slow down the spread of the virus, and many have turned to digital tracking methods to monitor the movements of their populations. From location tracking within the contact tracing apps, productivity monitoring software often secretly deployed for remotely working employees, to facial recognition, the response by governments and private companies has been overwhelmingly swift. This work, created during what we now understand to be the early stages of the pandemic, tracks these measures, to better understand how and what type of data is being collected by who and what this might mean for our privacy moving forward, once we emerge from this crisis.

The work was created during an artist residency at Off Site Project.

Tamara Kametani is a visual artist based between Athens and London working across media including photography, video, installation, and sculpture. Her practice is largely concerned with the topics of border politics, forms of surveillance, distribution of power, and the proliferation of technology. Kametani is particularly interested in the role technology plays in the construction of contemporary and historical narratives and its effect on forming our understanding of reality. She holds an MA Contemporary Art Practice, Public Sphere, from the Royal College of Art. Recent exhibitions include: All In, At Least a Possibility…, Kunsthalle Bratislava (2022); It might be nothing, but it could be something, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2021); TransLocal Cooperation, Furtherfield, London (2020)); For the Time Being, The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2019); and [ENTER], Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Hamburg (2018); amongst others.