Hito Steyerl The City of Broken Windows, 2018

This site-specific environment consists of two flat screens mounted on easels, placed at both ends of a room. Each screen plays a single video channel.

The work addresses how contemporary surveillance technologies employ Artificial Intelligence in their attempts to responds to the so-called Broken Windows Theory. This criminological theory suggests that visible signs of decay and urban dilapidation can encourage further crime and social disorder. The theory has had a widespread influence on policing and activism in urban communities in the United States and elsewhere.