Charlotte Flint

"It's a similar sensation to handcuffs being tight, but having them attached for three months of your life".

At the beginning of my research into the surveillance of offenders through electronic monitoring, I was disheartened with the lack of interest concerning the monitored body and the everyday experience of the tag wearer. After reading testimonies of former offenders, I discovered that the wearable device could be uncomfortable, impractical and could attract stigma when made visible. The silenced voices of former tag wearers provoked me to investigate further, constructing my dissertation around the untold stories of the monitored body.

This dissertation explores wearable monitoring systems between the years 1989–2013 and investigates four different devices and their individual methods of monitoring the body. The first chapter explores the spatial surveillance of offenders using electronic tags. Chapter two is built around Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM) bracelets, their effect upon the body and the social responses generated by the visible item. The final chapter investigates self-monitoring devices, worn to record bodily statistics concerning health and fitness and the effect self-surveillance has upon the wearer.

Built around the design and history of these four wearable technologies, this dissertation explores ideas of power, agency and the body with reference to human experience and surveillance. In order to further understand the sensation of being monitored, I interviewed a number of monitoring device wearer to construct a history of wearable surveillance technologies and their users.