Protocol of insecurity explores the intersection of reality TV, migration, tactics of power, and evaluation protocols. Using approximately 700 video loops from the TV reality shows Border Security (Canada, Australia, 2013-2015), and Homeland Security (USA, 2013-2015), the work explores the transformation of individual stories into televised spectacle. While concentrating on the non verbal communication between border security agents and “trespassing” individuals (gestures, expressions, document examination), the piece is generated anew at every launch by a custom-made software that edits the video loops in a different way each time. The resulting blurry and ever-evolving continuum of reaction shots, physical control mechanisms, and power-establishing attitudes of the border security agents tackles the important shift between human stories and televised propaganda.
Protocol of insecurity is the first sketch of a long-term theoretical and practical research on migration, biopolitics, algorithms of power, dehumanization, propaganda of fear, and the glorification of the police state through a false sense of security.