Dashes & Dots — Sergio Ximenez

DASHES & DOTS (2015 - )

The utilization of lens-based technology for terms of evidence in judicial processes is nothing new. With law enforcement using such technology for the purpose of keeping a step-by-step account of confrontations and associations with private citizens, public servants depend on this technology to stand in as the truth (as photographs and moving images have always been characteristically truthful in their depictions of nature).

The recording of private citizens in public spaces should never raise any concerns though, especially if kept strictly in the courtroom. However, it is once these recordings escape the grasp of private judicial processes and into the public space sphere do we begin to see the original intentions of such imagery change from purely evidential to overtly entertainment.

From the OJ Simpson police chase through the Los Angeles freeways to the more recent beatings and killings of minorities throughout the United States, we have seen the proliferation of law enforcement recordings from police car dash cams to police helicopter cameras to police officer wearable lapels become disseminated for public consumption.

It can be said that the Rodney King beating by the Los Angeles Police Department informed us of the need to keep law enforcement readily in constant check while the successful viewership of reality shows such as COPS verified the public interest in law enforcement processes. And with supply and demand meeting together in the middle, it was only a matter of time that this imagery would be elevated to something other than its original intentions.

And with the rise of social media and instant media technologies, the entertainment of law enforcement has become an erroneous reality. Dashes & Dots is meant to explore these unintended consequences.

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