The title explores the blurring of boundaries between those who watch and those who are watched, a concept that spans from public art installations to the core of human consciousness. The Public Gaze: Surveillance as Performance

At its most profound level, the phrase "the observer is the observed" suggests a collapse of duality between our awareness and the reality we experience.

: Participants use a set of custom bronze binoculars to spy on their surroundings.

: In art, the "Observer archetype" appears when an image seems to watch the viewer back, registering its own existence rather than just performing for an audience.

In the realm of public art, the installation Observer Observed by sculptor at the Sydney Festival challenges our comfort with modern surveillance.

Dive into the in physics (the double-slit experiment)?

: Subjects often modify their actions when they know they are being studied, which can lead to skewed data for researchers.

: Unbeknownst to them, a camera inside the binoculars broadcasts a live feed of their own peering eyes to a nearby LED screen for others to see.