Envisioning the Homefront: Militarization, Tracking and Security Culture

Abstract

As an artist and media theorist, Jordan Crandall is concerned primarily with conceptualizing the confluences of media technologies and computerized military programs for tracking, identifying and targeting. Influenced by the writings of Paul Virilio, Henri Bergson, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari on the visual, Crandall’s work shares similar concerns with that of Brian Massumi, Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway. These concerns are much in evidence in his recent projects, such as Drive (1998-2000), Heatseeking (2000), Trigger (2002) and Homefront (2005). Through these and other installations, artworks and critical writings, and as an active and influential assistant professor at the University of California, Crandall’s work is having a significant impact on numerous areas of enquiry, including visual culture, contemporary critical cultural theory and politics. Currently, he is investigating the relationships between movement and mediation, embodiment and representation. Here, Crandall speaks about these and related issues with John Armitage.