How Looking has Changed

Something struck me when Josh brought up the functions of surveillance images during Wednesday's lecture (part 2 of the lecture). Specifically, i'm not so sure I agree (or perhaps I need more explanation) with the idea that "cinema has always been complicit with surveillance". Though in terms of cinema as a catalyst for voyeurism, the issue I want to highlight here is language . Though perhaps Josh's statement is valid, it seems that an alteration in the term surveillance must have occurred in order for it to be so. 

Take for example (as Josh did) Lumier's footage of factory workers leaving their workplace. This has been categorized as surveillance recording, and I suppose it is...if you look at the definition of surveillance. The word comes from the French (I think, though originally from Latin) 'sur' - meaning over - and 'veillar'  - meaning to watch. With this in mind, Lumier clearly 'surveyed' his workers in filming them. He watched them, in my mind, for no apparent reason. He was looking for the sake of looking (and most significantly for the sake of using new technology). 

Surveillance today, however, has become entirely more dangerous.  The OED cites the definition as "watch or guard kept over a person, etc., esp. over a suspected person, a prisoner, or the like; often spying, supervision; less commonly, supervision for the purpose of direction or control, superintendence". The connotations of the word have become far more negative than before, largely I think because of the rise of technology and its aggressive use by governments. Looking, in terms of surveillance, is of a different nature. It is looking to know something (that you think is there hiding from you). It connotes curiosity and at times paranoia within the viewer. In connotes malintent within the object being looked upon. It connotes intrusion. Were any of these connotations present in Lumier's video? Can surveillance today really be compared with that of the 19th century? It seems technology has altered the way we see, hear, perceive, react to and now even use language.