The Materiality of Electronic Surveillance

Electronic surveillance is often represented in terms of the “dematerialization” or the “virtualization” of confinement. However, this conceptualization overlooks the issue of what an immaterial physical constraint is. Conversely and paradoxically, electronic surveillance is readily described in material and carceral terms (“curfew” or “house arrest”).Yet, these terms cover up the specificity of how remote surveillance works. This paper starts by assessing the experience of people subjected to such surveillance in order to understand the complex system that actually produces this constraint. Electronic and virtual surveillance is always based on the flesh, the body, and the environment. Hence, in a specific way, it reactivates the old carceral paradigm instead of going beyond it.