Panoptic Pollution

Live Data / Generative Glyph / Projection

Click here for a live web-version of Panoptic Pollution. It will ask for access to your web cam - it is not recording or able to capture your screen it is for your local use only. If no glyphs appear you may need to change your browser.

Panoptic Pollution is a dual-projection installation. One screen displays a live, unfiltered public CCTV feed of a public space, observational, and silent. Next to it, a second screen visualising the gaze of viewers watching the CCTV in real time: a slowly forming “heat map” rendered in a coloured spectrum of glyphs. The more sustained or repeated the gaze in a given area, the larger the glyph grows. Creating a collective drawing of attention.

The system functions as a self-regulating ecosystem. Areas that are ignored remain black while areas over-observed become saturated and unstable. When a viewer shifts focus from the CCTV feed to the projection of their own gaze traces, the system introduces minor visual disruption, a break in the line drawing, a feedback loop critiquing digital narcissism and self-surveillance. Over time, the screen reveals zones of obsession, neglect, and distortion. An evolving landscape grown entirely from human attention and self observation.

Installation View : Cambridge Digital Humanities, Emergent Flora Exhibition 2025.