[Commlist] Call for Papers “Surveillance and Control in Italian Audiovisual Culture”

Call for Papers International Conference

*Surveillance and Control in Italian Audiovisual Culture*

Organised by Luisella Farinotti, Annalisa Pellino, and Federico Selvini

October 30–31, 2025 – IULM University, Milan

Surveillance has become a defining feature of late modernity (Lyon, 
Haggerty, Ball 2012), shaping social interaction and fueling widespread 
anxieties—both personal and collective—concerning the precarious balance 
between the protection of democratic values and the erosion of civil 
liberties. While the earliest cultural representations of surveillance 
emerged in the first half of the 20th century—through novels such as 
/We/ by E.I. Zamyatin (1924), /Brave New World/ by Aldous Huxley (1932), 
and, most famously, /1984/ by George Orwell (1949), as well as films 
like Fritz Lang’s /Metropolis/ (1927)—it was only in the second half of 
the century that surveillance began to be systematically theorised 
across disciplines (G.T. Marx 2015). This period saw the emergence of 
influential concepts such as the “disciplinary society” (Foucault 1977), 
“dataveillance” (Clarke 1988), the “society of control” (Deleuze 1992), 
and “the transparent society” (Brin 1998), among others.**From the 1970s 
through the 1990s, a wave of pioneering scholarship laid the groundwork 
for what would become the field of surveillance studies (Rule 1974; Lyon 
1994). However, it was in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 that 
surveillance moved to the forefront of both public discourse and 
academic inquiry.

Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity have become fundamental 
traits of this research area. Torin Monahan and David Murakami Wood 
(2018) characterise surveillance studies as a dynamic field where 
multiple approaches, methodologies, and areas of knowledge 
converge—ranging from sociology and political science to anthropology, 
geography, history, and law. Likewise, cultural studies, science and 
technology studies, and the wider humanities actively engage in 
analysing the mechanisms of control and disciplinary power that 
profoundly shape contemporary life. The resulting heterogeneity makes 
surveillance studies an exceptionally broad and varied field. Yet, 
despite the diversity of approaches, scholars in this area remain 
connected through a common set of core concerns. As Monahan and Wood 
note, “some position the target of surveillance as an individual person 
whose freedoms are infringed upon, while others question the larger 
effects on subject populations or society as a whole. There is general 
agreement, however, that surveillance is widespread, facilitated by 
information systems used by most organisations, and permeating down to 
the capillary level of society—that is, on the level of everyday 
interactions in most arenas of public and private life” (2018: XXVII).

Out of these tensions arises a cultural space of negotiation, in which 
competing—and frequently contradictory—conceptions of politics, 
identity, and ethics are debated and re-envisioned (Wise 2016: 4). J. 
MacGregor Wise terms this space the /surveillant imaginary/, a 
theoretical concept emphasising the reciprocal relationship between 
cultural dynamics and the socio-technological transformations driven by 
surveillance. In this context, cultural texts and media artifacts emerge 
as key objects of investigation, as they influence not only our 
understanding but also everyday behaviors and social interactions. 
Surveillance studies examine how these works inform and shape 
perceptions of surveillance, analysing the ways control is portrayed, 
internalised, and lived. In particular, audiovisual media and artistic 
practices play an essential role in interrogating and interpreting the 
forms of control and disciplinary power offering powerful conceptual 
tools (Monahan 2011: 501)—whether by exposing dystopian visions and 
critical perspectives (Lyon 2007: 139) or by imagining speculative 
worlds and alternative possibilities (Marks 2015: 3).

Moreover, the relationship between surveillance cultures and audiovisual 
media extends well beyond mere representation, involving deeper 
ontological and phenomenological connections. As Kammerer (2012: 101) 
notes, “it is easy to see how surveillance and cinema relate to each 
other. Technologically, both rely on apparatuses of (acoustic and 
visual) recording. Structurally, both create situations where one side 
is watching and the other is being watched.” Recent scholarship 
highlights the emergence of a “rhetorics of surveillance” (Levin, 
Frohne, Weibel 2002), emphasising structural correspondences and mutual 
dynamics (Zimmer 2015: 14) between mechanisms of control and cinematic 
language—moving beyond interpretations focused merely on voyeurism 
(Denzin 1995). Indeed, while early research predominantly addressed the 
distant and disembodied gaze of surveillance, more recent 
phenomenological perspectives have brought attention to the full range 
of sensory experiences and their kinesthetic interrelations. This 
reorientation has expanded the critical framework to include auditory 
dimensions of surveillance—what Szendy (2016) defines as /surécoute/—and 
their corresponding sonic representations (Mera 2021). Such a 
perspective calls for a reconsideration of established paradigms and the 
development of alternative analytical tools. The panoptic model alone is 
no longer adequate to account for the intricacies of contemporary 
surveillance regimes. At the very least, it should be reconfigured to 
incorporate a /panacoustic/ dimension (Elmer, Neville 2021), while also 
being examined alongside other, often invisible and opaque forms of 
control made possible by algorithmic and computational infrastructures 
(Ernst 2001; Bridle 2018).

In recent years, especially since the second decade of the 21st century, 
a growing body of scholarship has examined the relationship between 
audiovisual media and surveillance. This includes significant 
contributions within both film studies (Lefait 2013; Marks 2015; Zimmer 
2015; Stewart 2015; Blumenthal-Barby 2024) and artistic practices 
(Levin, Frohne, Weibel 2002; Somaini 2010; Cesaro 2022; De Rosa 2024; 
Velotti 2024). Moreover, scholarly engagement with these issues extends 
well beyond European and North American contexts; Fang’s studies (2017a, 
b) on Asian cinema, for instance, clearly demonstrate the global scope 
of this critical discourse. Nonetheless, despite the breadth and growing 
international significance of surveillance studies, this area remains 
largely peripheral within research on Italian audiovisual culture. A few 
exceptions can be found in isolated analyses of individual works, such 
as Francesco Rosi’s /Illustrious Corpses/ (/Cadaveri eccellenti/, 1976) 
(O’Leary 2011) and Costanza Quatriglio’s documentary /87 Hours: The Last 
Days of Francesco Mastrogiovanni/ (/87 ore. Gli ultimi giorni di 
Francesco Mastrogiovanni/, 2015) (Surace 2016; Cesaro 2019), or within a 
specific corpus of case studies with thematic or stylistic affinities 
(Pellino, Selvini 2024). Similarly, the work of Lorenzo Pezzani and 
Charles Heller (2019), co-founders of Forensic Oceanography, represents 
a rare case of inquiry into the use of surveillance in managing 
migration flows and securing national borders.

This conference proposes to fill this gap by investigating how 
surveillance has been represented, mediated, and contested across the 
landscape of Italian audiovisual culture. We welcome proposals from 
scholars and researchers—including, where appropriate, in the form of 
video essays and audio essays—that engage with, but are not limited to, 
the following research areas:

-Narratives and representations of surveillance in Italian audiovisual 
culture.

-The staging and evolution of surveillance techniques, technologies, and 
devices.

-Re-readings of authors, genres, media forms, and stylistic modes 
through the lens of surveillance studies.

-Iconographies and phonographies of surveillance within the Italian context.

-Media archaeologies of surveillance in Italy.

-Theories, methodologies, and analytical tools for examining the 
relationship between surveillance, media culture, and audiovisual forms.

-Intersections between surveillance, media, and cultural practices 
(including habits, customs, and consumption).

-Surveillance, sousveillance, and counter-surveillance within the 
Italian media system and its transformations.

-Representations and practices of public and private control within 
media infrastructures.

-The role of media in the normalisation of public policy and in shaping 
practices of control and surveillance.

Proposals must be submitted in English and should include an abstract of 
no more than 500 words, three keywords, a short bibliography (maximum 
five references), and a brief biographical note (maximum 150 words). 
Submissions should be sent via email to (annalisa.pellino /at/ iulm.it) 
<mailto:(annalisa.pellino /at/ iulm.it)> and (federico.selvini /at/ iulm.it) 
<mailto:(federico.selvini /at/ iulm.it)>, with the subject line: /Conference 
Proposal – Surveillance/.

The deadline for submissions is *30 June 2025*.

The international conference, held in English, will take place at IULM 
University in Milan on October 30–31, 2025. _No registration fee is 
required_.

*Selected bibliography*

-Agre, Philip E. 1994. “Surveillance and Capture: Two Models of 
Privacy.” /Information Society/10 (2): 101–27.**

-Anderson, Steve. 2015. "Screening Surveillance." /[in]Transition/ 2.1.**

-Amsellem, Audrey. /Sound and Surveillance: The Making of the Neoliberal 
Ear/. PhD dissertation. New York: Columbia University, 2022.**

-Ball, Kirstie, Kevin Haggerty and David Lyon (eds.). 2012. /Routledge 
Handbook of Surveillance Studies/, London-New York: Routledge. **

-Blumenthal-Barby, Martin. 2024. /Cinema and Surveillance. The 
Asymmetric Gaze/, London: Routledge.**

-Boyne, Roy. 2000. “Post-Panopticism.” /Economy and Society/ 29 (2): 
285–307.**

-Bridle, James. 2018. /New dark age: Technology and the End of the 
Future./ London-New York: Verso Books.**

-Brin, David. 1998. /The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us 
to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?/ New York: Perseus Press.**

-Cesaro, Laura. 2019 "Horror body as a bodily manifestation of 
visibility: 87 ore by Costanza Quatriglio." /Northern Lights /17 (1): 
101–14.**

-Cesaro, Laura. 2022. /Geografie del controllo visuale nella scena 
audiovisiva contemporanea/. Roma: Bulzoni Editore.**

-Clarke, Roger A. 1998. “Information Technology and Dataveillance.” 
Communications of the ACM 31(5) 498–512.

-Deleuze, Gilles. 1992 [1990]. /Pourparlers/. New York: Columbia 
University Press.

-Denzin, Norman K. 1995. /The Cinematic Society. The Voyeur’s Gaze/. 
London-Thousand Oaks-New Delhi: SAGE Publications.

-De Rosa, Miriam Stefania. 2023. “Off the Grid. Strategie di 
configurazione mediale tra poetica della congiunzione e politica della 
griglia.” /Comunicazioni sociali/ 3: 353-64.

-Elmer, Greg, and Stephen J. Neville. 2021. “The Resonate Prison: 
Earwitnessing the Panacoustic Affect.” /Surveillance & Society/19 (1): 
11-21.**

-Fang, Karen. 2017. /Arresting Cinema: Surveillance in Hong Kong Film/. 
Stanford: Stanford University Press.**

-Fang, Karen. 2017. /Surveillance in Asian Cinema/. London-New York: 
Routledge.**

-Fonio, Chiara. 2007. /La videosorveglianza. Uno sguardo senza volto/. 
Milano: FrancoAngeli.**

-Foucault, Michel. 1977 [1975]. /Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the 
Prison/. New York: Vintage Books**

-Heller, Charles, Marie Sandoz, and Anne-Katrin Weber. 2022 “De la 
surveillance à la contestation. Flux et reflux du régime esthétique de 
la frontière en Méditerranée. Charles Heller en conversation avec Marie 
Sandoz et Anne‑Katrin Weber.” /Transbordeur. Photographie histoire 
société/ 6: 88-97.

-Heller, Charles, and Lorenzo Pezzani. 2019. “AIS Politics: The 
contested use of vessel tracking at the EU’s maritime frontier.” 
/Science, Technology, & Human Values/44 (5): 881–99.

-Kammerer, Dietmar. 2024. “Surveillance and Entertainment”. In 
/Entertainment Media and Communication/, edited by Nicholas David 
Bowman, 457–68. Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter 
<https://www.google.it/search?hl=it&gbpv=1&q=inpublisher:%22De+Gruyter%22&tbm=bks&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO8ZDSuJmMAxUz2AIHHfcqGiYQmxMoAHoECCQQAg&sxsrf=AHTn8zrnvJ1kt7Fm_q7hSO8rcYUAWO0vkw:1742500616858>.**

-Kammerer, Dietmar. 2012. “Surveillance in Literature, Film and 
Television.” In /Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies/, edited by 
Kirstie Ball, Kevin Haggerty, David Lyon, 99-106. London: Routledge..

-Kammerer, Dietmar. 2004. “Video surveillance in Hollywood movies.” 
/Surveillance & Society/2 (2/3): 464–73.

-Lefait, Sébastien. 2013. /Surveillance on Screen: Monitoring 
Contemporary Films and Television Programs/. Lanham-Toronto-Plymouth: 
Scarecrow Press.**

-Thomas Y. Levine, Ursula Frohne and Peter Weibel. 2002. /CTRL [SPACE]: 
Rhetorics of surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother/. Cambridge: MIT 
Press.**

-Lyon, David. 2020. /The culture of surveillance: Watching as a way of 
life/. Cambridge-Medford: Polity Press.**

-Lyon, David. 1994. /The Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance 
Society/. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.**

-Lyon, David. 2007. Surveillance Studies: An Overview. Cambridge; Malden 
(MA): Polity Press.**

-Marx, Gary T. 2015. “Surveillance studies.” International Encyclopedia 
of the Social & Behavioral Sciences 23 (2): 733–41.**

-Marks, Peter. 2015. /Imagining Surveillance. Eutopian and Dystopian 
Literature and Films/. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.**

-Mera, Miguel. 2021. /Listening–Feeling–Becoming. Cinema Surveillance/. 
In /The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening/, curated by Carlo 
Cenciarelli, 407–26. Oxford: Oxford University Press.**

-Monahan, Torin, e David Murakami Wood (eds). 2018. /Surveillance 
Studies. A Reader/. New York: Oxford University Press.

-Monahan, Torin. “Surveillance as cultural practice.” 2011. /The 
Sociological Quarterly/ 52 (4): 495–508.

-O’Leary, Alan. 2011. /Tragedia all’italiana. Italian Cinema and Italian 
Terrorisms. 1970-2020/. Bern: Peter Lang.**

-Pellino, Annalisa, and Federico Selvini. 2024. “Indizi mediali. Regimi 
della sorveglianza e dispositivi ottici e sonori nel cinema Giallo 
italiano.” /Cinergie–Il Cinema e le altre Arti /25: 99-116.**

-Rule, James B. 1974. /Private Lives and Public Surveillance: Social 
Control in the Computer Age/. New York: Schocken Books.**

-Somaini, Antonio. 2010. “Disciplina e antidisciplina: forme mediali 
della sorveglianza nell'arte contemporanea.” Comunicazioni sociali. 1: 
62–78.**

-Stewart, Garrett. 2015. /Closed Circuits. Screening Narrative 
Surveillance/. Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press.**

-Surace, Bruno. 2016. “Semiotica di 87 ore. Etica, estetica, semioetica 
delle immagini panottiche.” In /Carte semiotiche Annali. Immagini del 
controllo. Governo e visibilità dei corpi/ 4: 185-95.

-Szendy, Peter. 2016 [2007]. /AllEars: the Aesthetics of Espionage/. New 
York: Fordham Univ Press.

-Turner, John S. “Collapsing the interior/exterior distinction: 
Surveillance, spectacle, and suspense in popular cinema.” In /Wide 
Angle/ 20(4), (1998): 93–123. **

-Velotti, Stefano. 2024. /The Conundrum of Control. Making Sense through 
Artistic Practice/. Leiden-Boston: Brill.**

-Weis, Elizabeth. “Eavesdropping: An Aural Analogue of Voyeurism?” In 
/Cinesonic: The World of Sound in Film/, ed. Philip Brophy, 79–107. 
Sydney: AFTRS, 1999.**

-Wise, J. Macgregor. 2016. /Surveillance and Film/. New York-London: 
Bloomsbury.**

-Zimmer, Catherine. “Surveillance Cinema: Narrative between Technology 
and Politics.”///Surveillance & Society/8(4), (2011): 427–40.**

-Zimmer, Catherine. 2015. /Surveillance Cinema/. New York-London: New 
York University Press.**

-Zuboff, Shoshana. 2019. /The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. The Fight 
for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power/. New York: Public Affairs.

<https://www.iulm.it>

	

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