ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that tools and artefacts of surveillance are increasingly becoming intrinsic elements of mediatized lifeworlds and life experiences. It aims to show how surveillance camera images – as the prototypical, meta-symbolic artefact of the imaginary of a contemporary surveillance society – are used in the context of creating cultural meaning. The chapter shows that this contributes to understanding how, in factual media products, fiction and art, acts of situating oneself within and expressing experiences of societies of control are formed. It addresses the feeling-states associated with being captured by surveillance images within a society of control in connection with discourses on contemporary Britain, which are often expressed in emotional terms. Surveillance has become an inherent part of what Nick Couldry and Andreas Hepp have described as ‘deep mediatization’: the increasing interlinkage of various media and their institutions as a factor in shaping the construction of contemporary lifeworlds.
