Special Works School

Synopsis

‘Special Works School’ was the codename used by the British War Office between 1917-1919 for a group of artists tasked with the job of ‘camoufleur’ - painters, textile artists, scenographers, designers, sculptors and scenic painters who were employed by the military to work specifically on developing camouflage technology. The artist, armed with the skill of rendering their surroundings with utmost acuity, was appointed to remove things from the realm of perception. Bambitchell’s ’Special Works School’ takes its name from this military unit to investigate the connections between artistic practice and surveillant technologies. With this video, the duo ask what an overtly aesthetic approach to surveillance can render visible, or invisible. By framing surveillance as an aesthetic practice, ‘Special Works School’ hones in on the psychic, embodied and material dimensions of surveillance - both from the position of the surveillor and the surveilled.