The project “Observed” is a seven-day video diary composed entirely of CCTV footage from a residential building. The central figure in each of the clips forming the video is the author himself, captured in the process of entering and leaving his home. The work deconstructs the logic of surveillance systems by transforming them from tools of institutional oversight into a medium for radical self-observation. Through this self-observation by the author and the "voyeuristic" perception of the viewer, the repetitive domestic action is transformed from an unnoticeable daily fact into a performative act.

The primary territory of investigation in the project is the social logic of surveillance systems. They can be viewed as instruments of social oversight that invariably lead to control and oppression through the fundamental restriction of personal space and the privacy of citizens. In this sense, video surveillance aims to identify the anomaly, the threat, or the “alien” element. The project represents a unique appropriation of the technology by the author, through which it is turned against its own logic. Instead of seeking an external intruder, the camera here is forced to document the normativity of everyday life. Thus, the focus shifts from paranoia to routine, and the instrument of control is transformed into a passive archivist of existence.

The viewer is transformed from a passive observer into an accomplice within the surveillance system itself, placed in a position that invades the author’s personal space. The element of the mundane is key to the resulting paradox, as the specific visuality of the system predisposes the viewer as a supervisor searching for every small “infraction” on the part of the observed. This raises a fundamental question: is video surveillance a pure “document”—a neutral, objective alibi for the observed? Or is it, in fact, a specific optic for perceiving the world that imposes its own logic of social dominance, marginalization, and criminalization?

The project consists of 15 “clips,” the focus and occasion of which is a single individual—the author. This specific selectivity reinforces the element of voyeurism, as it directs attention toward a specific figure through the prism of an automated system, transforming them from a random passerby into an object of constant tracking. The clips claim a documentary status insofar as they reflect a full week of entries and exits for every single day. However, the very selection of the footage calls this “documentary nature” into question. If intentional editing was required to achieve this focus, it inevitably compromises the authenticity of the presented reality through the selective exclusion of frames unknown to the viewer. In this way, the author questions the extent to which we can trust the absolute objective truth of a system that remains inherently selective and controllable.

“Observed” is not merely a testimony of a week in the author’s life, a personal diary, or a portrait through video surveillance; it is an exploration of the invisible regime of looking that simultaneously turns us into witnesses, accomplices, and objects within our own digital history.