Eric Howeler : Paranoid Chic, The Aethestics of Surveillance
"Our visible and invisible world is continually scanned by electronic technologies. The paranoid state is not the exception, but the norm. Its claims of conspiracy and persecution seem ever more justified in the Postmodern, post-contemporary, post-millennial world. There is a reemergence of a new kind of paranoia in fashion photography, design and advertising: Paranoid Chic, or the aesthetics of surveillance. ... A billboard in Times Square epitomizes Paranoid Chic. A couple in an elevator is oblivious to the camera. They are caught up in a slouchy embrace. Above the image is an image of a surveillance camera - presumably the camera that recorded the image below it - creating a kind of surveillance diptych. Surveillance is a given, it is everywhere. Surveillance is sexy. Big Brother is watching, so you have to look good."
Neil Gaiman : Being an Account of the Life and Death of the Emperor Heliogabolus