OPINIONS

On Métis identity, temporality, and (de)territorialisation Where am I from? What a tricky question. There are four answers I typically give depending on the context. The first simply answers the question of my permanent address: I am from Pitt Meadows, British Columbia. The second answers the question of my origins: ...

A conversation with Professor Janett Vengoa This interview was conducted in Spanish, and all translations are the author’s.  Located two hours away from Cusco in the Peruvian Andes, is the town of Pomanchi. Wherever I looked, the imposing cordilleras reminded me that there were bigger, more important things than buildings ...

The privilege, courage, and longing tied to the universal pursuit of home I consider home to be a feeling. A feeling strongly associated with family, comfort, and belonging. I am originally from British Columbia, yet despite being away from my family and home city, I have been able to slowly ...

Every click, swipe, and post = $$$ for social media companies  The 2020 film The Social Dilemma was not overexaggerating when they said if we are not paying for a product, then we are the product. Like the average 12-year-old in 2019, I begged my parents for a phone. I ...

When surveillance shapes behaviour, we live in Hell  We live in a world of cameras and cookies. Everywhere we go, everything we do, want, or think, is tracked. Most of the time, this is to maximise the effectiveness of marketing tactics that push us towards buying the latest unneeded thing. ...

From Orwellian fears to a participatory willingness, we have fallen in love with being watched George Orwell’s book, 1984, ends with its protagonist’s submission to the monolithic forces of the surveillance state. It concludes, in chilling simplicity, with Winston’s admission that “he loved Big Brother.” Reading as a middle schooler ...

Candid street shots meet the eerie gaze of AI Perhaps you’ve seen street photography, a subgenre of photography encompassing a wide variety of even smaller subgenres. Perhaps you’ve seen black and white pictures of people arguing outside a subway station, photographs from protests or pride events worldwide, or from the ...

It’s what makes it so powerful I used to be overly nonchalant when the subject of our phones listening to us was brought up. In a teenage attempt to sound cool, I would make some unfunny joke like “at least they know what I want,” or claim that I simply ...

How surveillance erodes trust and autonomy in modern society In the twenty-first century, there has been no technological development more insidious than surveillance. A mere 50 years ago, CCTV was still in its infancy and limited to only a few government-owned locations. At the time, one could shop without a ...

How surveillance becomes a tool for reifying social hierarchies in Canada The phrase “Orwellian” is often used to describe far-off totalitarian states, or, something resembling the novel 1984 by George Orwell, a science fiction that tackles dystopian societies where one is constantly being watched. However, surveillance occurs in a myriad ...