You Have Been Watched (2002)




YHBW was a video-based art project made using cctv cameras which explored the presence of transgender bodies in public space. Inspired by the idea that transgender bodies are always under surveillance, the trilogy was filmed using the camera system in place on the Samuda Estate in east London in collaboration with the residents. In workshops carried out on the estate, a narrative structure was agreed and filmed in a one day shoot which interrupted the surveillance procedure of the cameras.

The narrative involved the local Community television station having its data hijacked by another organisation. When this becomes generally known, the residents organise a protest which leads to them chasing the camera crew who escape into the lift and "disguising themselves" by dragging up. In the final sequence (unfilmed due to lack of time) the camera crew are discovered and publicly executed. Due to the difficulties of filming in public spaces the original script was scrapped and a trilogy of short films produced- You have been Watched (daytime footage), Freaky Revelations (footage made in lifts) and Being Watched which shows the night time footage. The project was subject of an article, originally published in Extensions; Online Journal of Embodied Technology (UCLA) by Doran George“You Have Been Watched” Dances between scrutiny and transubstantiation in the viewing of the transgendered body on closed circuit television

YHBW es un proyecto de video arte realizado con cameras de seguridad que explora la presencia de cuerpos transgeneros en el espacio publico.Basado en el concepto que los cuerpos transgeneros están siempre bajo vigilancia, la trilogía estaba rodado enteramente utilizando el sistema de cameras de seguridad de un proyecto de viviendas sociales (Samuda Estate) en el este de Londres en el 2002 en colaboración con los residentes. En talleres realizados en situ, se desarrolló una estructura narrativa que interrumpió los procesos de vigilancia por el día del rodaje.

En la narrativa otra cadena roba las grabaciones de la cadena de televisión local (los cameras de seguridad). Cuando la noticia sale a la luz, los residentes organizan una manifestación que acaba con ellos persiguiendo el equipo de rodaje. Estos escapan dentro de los ascensores y se travisten para disfrazarse. En la ultima secuencia (no rodado por falta de tiempo) se descubre el equipo y son ejecutados en publico. En parte por las dificultades de rodar en el espacio publico se abandonó el guión original y realizamos tres cortos You have been Watched (rodaje del día), Freaky Revelations (rodaje hecho en los ascensores) y este cortometraje basado en el rodaje hecho por la noche. Un articulo sobre el proyecto escrito por Doran George salió (originalmente) en la revista Extensions; Online Journal of Embodied Technology de la UCLA “You Have Been Watched” Dances between scrutiny and transubstantiation in the viewing of the transgendered body on closed circuit television