Internet narcissism, corporate surveillance and the manipulation of social media algorithms are touch points for Cinopticon – Giselle Stanborough’s immersive performance installation in which audiences see their reflection in unpredictable ways.

Cinopticon contemporises Foucault’s theory of the ‘panopticon’, a model of surveillance where the few watch and control the many. Today, with technology at our fingertips, we watch each other. In this installation, various elements are abstracted through a prism of self-reflection. At the heart of its sensory quest, Cinopticon probes what it means to both be watched and watch others.

Searchlights, sculptural forms, colossal wall diagrams and mirrored digital surfaces reflect the performative experience of social media platforms. As the subject and object of her own system of visual scrutiny, Stanborough is the ghost in her own machine. She haunts its house of mirrors, trapped as a digital apparition at the bottom of the well.

Curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham. Cinopticon was commissioned by Carriageworks, as part of Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship, made possible with funds from the Estate of Katthy Cavaliere in partnership with the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and Museum of Old and New Art (Mona).

Giselle Stanborough, Cinopticon, 2020, Carriageworks. Image Zan Wimberley

Giselle Stanborough, Cinopticon, 2020, Carriageworks. Image Mark Pokorny