Art, human rights, and threats from above

Abstract

Art can present to people the dangers coming from above, like excessive surveillance, military attacks and climate change, which all threaten people's physical and mental well-being. Governments, however, also use art to legitimise new military and surveillance technologies. They often create seductive images which show the efficiency of these technologies, and they develop fiction related to pre-emptive measures which might try to predict and prevent crimes from occurring. In the last 20 years, especially after the 11 September terrorist attack, we have witnessed an essential change in the perception of human rights and reinterpretations of laws to allow pre-emptive strikes in the battle against terrorism. The concept of pre-crime, increased surveillance, and the belief that one can predict and prevent crimes have also altered the perceptions of subjectivity. While some critics regard human rights as obsolete or inefficient, political scientists like Claude Lefort have perceived them as always open to reinterpretation and expansion. People can invent new human rights. The increased threats from above require that we expand the existing rights corpus.