Here, the eye of the giant that terrifies Ulysses and his comrades is the sociopolitical and economic system in which we are immersed. The impersonal, almost omnipresent eye is that of the electronic surveillance systems.
It is the electronic eye and/or ear that captures our hypothetical crime as it is committed, but it is human eyes and ears that need to interpret these data. Those surveillance specialists that we find everywhere behave like professional "voyeurs", registering and scrutinizing us, allowing us hardly an opportunity to resist. It seems very odd that we should be more and more fearful of exchanging glances with a stranger, yet at the same time we accept unquestioningly the fact that we are constantly subjected to the gaze of the surveillance professionals. Maybe it is because there is a new "voyeurism" just as anonymous as that of those professionals and it involves just as few risks as well.
The "voyeur" can be arrested "in flagranti but not the Internet navigator or the telespectator of "reality shows", who are protected by the security status of anonymity.
(Photo: Jerez/ Iges; Translation: Ars Electronica)