The Follower

The Follower (2023–2024) raises key questions about privacy and highlights the pervasive presence of automated surveillance in our networked world. Apart from our followers on social media, who else is keeping an eye on us?

Over a period of several weeks, Dries Depoorter collected video recordings from publicly accessible cameras at famous landmarks. He then used an AI software to scour Instagram for images that were published during the same time frame and whose location tags matched the positions of the cameras. The search was limited to Instagram posts by influencers with at least 100,000 followers. The AI then compared the video recordings with the Instagram images and was able to identify the influencers.

The Follower points out the contrast between the idealized representation of places and events on social media and the real, unfiltered reality. Live feeds from open access cameras can be viewed by anyone on the internet and often paint a very different picture to the one presented in our social media feeds. Further, The Follower reminds us that in today's world, self-expression and surveillance are inextricably linked.