Art Research Database

ABOUT THE DATABASE
DATABASE OVERVIEW
01.

MISSION PARAMETERS

This database aims to catalog all artworks relating to privacy and surveillance. It is the largest database of its kind.

This database was created by the UChicago SUPERgroup for a study on what privacy and surveillance art can teach us about the privacy and surveillance concerns of people, as well as how to communicate privacy and surveillance information.

We have published an analysis of this database as an academic paper at CHI 2026.

02.

INCLUSION/EXCLUSION CRITERIA

INCLUSION CRITERIA
  • Artworks addressing surveillance, privacy, and other related themes
  • Artworks that have been widely interpreted to have privacy/surveillance themes
  • Artworks featured in galleries, festivals, online, or in public
EXCLUSION CRITERIA
  • Theatrically released films
  • Artwork with little documentation
  • Artworks part of private collections
  • Artworks focused on specific instances of government surveillance


The list of artworks focused on privacy/surveillance can be near infinite. We chose these criteria to focus on viewable artworks that focus on general privacy/surveillance without having artworks that get too unrelated to the central theme.