The Argus Project is a wearable sculpture, documentary film and video installation which intersects the public debate over police accountability and racial injustice.
According to ancient Greek myth, Argus Panoptes was a giant with 100 eyes who served as an eternal watchman, both for – and against – the gods. By embedding an array of camera "eyes" into a full body suit of tactical armor, the Argus exo-suit creates a "force field of accountability" around the bodies of those targeted.
While some consider filming the police as a confrontational or subversive act, it is in fact, a deeply democratic one. The act of bearing witness to the actions of the state - and showing them to the world - strengthens our society and institutions.
The Argus Project is not so much about an individual hero, but the Citizen Body as a whole. Every time one of us makes the courageous choice to pull out our cell phone cameras and film the actions of the police, we become one of the eyes of this giant.
Together, we are all Argus.
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The Argus Project debuted at Tribeca Film Festival: Interactive Storyscapes in Spring of 2016 and on tour at film festivals across the US.
