ABSTRACT
Kevin D. Haggerty and Amber Gazso (2005, 183) point out in their study of terrorist threats and surveillance that the gaze of information gathering, regardless of its origin, causes psychological change in its objects through their awareness of being watched. It is this manner of looking, and its effects on the object, that are considered in this article, which examines several video installations by Derry-born artist Willie Doherty, namely Blackspot (1997), Control Zone (1999), The Only Good One is a Dead One (1993) and Sometimes I Imagine It’s My Turn (1998). In dealing with issues of urban panopticism and the presence of social media, these installations indicate the changes in landscape, visual communication and language caused by the application of observational systems and mechanisms at state and (anti)social levels.
