Dean of the College, Division of Languages and Literature, Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures (FLCL), and Chinese Studies Presents

Gazing Back at the Compound Eye: The Estrangement of Surveillance Images in Xu Bing’s Dragonfly Eyes

The imagination of surveillance cameras and the digital media as “compound eyes” is a dominant motif in contemporary Chinese critical and cultural production. This concept resonates deeply within Chinese visual culture and film, where the compound eye functions as both a technological reality and a symbolic structure. In this talk, I examine this intersection through Xu Bing’s experimental art film Dragonfly Eyes (2017). My analysis focuses on Xu Bing’s distinctive approach of repurposing the found surveillance footage, through which he subverts traditional power dynamics, and transforms the surveillance apparatus into an object of critical reflection. By defamiliarizing audiences from the machine vision they have grown accustomed to, the film disrupts the neutrality of digital seeing. In doing so, it prompts reflection on deep-
seated anxieties in the digital age—including the takeover of visual representation by digital media, the alienation from lived experience, the obsession with achieving a totalized and comprehensive replication of reality, and the estrangement from nature. I argue that Dragonfly Eyes fundamentally engages with these concerns by constructing an intricate relationship between surveillance footage, webcam recordings, the film’s protagonists, and the audience. Blurring the boundaries between viewing subject and object, the film positions its protagonists as both narrators and characters, oscillating between reality and fiction, observer and observed. Through this interplay, Dragonfly Eyes invites contemplation on the pervasive impact of digital surveillance and the shifting nature of visuality in the contemporary world.

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For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail sxiong@bard.edu.

Time: 5:30 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102

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