Jeffery Smart

The notion of technologies tracking people’s movements is common in many parts of the world today. Yet when radar and satellite devices emerged in the mid-twentieth century, they appeared strange and potentially threatening. The massive control tower that dwarfs the tiny human figures at the base of this work draws together these ideas. Smart commented on the relationship between people and these new technologies in Art International in 1968, hinting at its strangeness: ‘A man is logical on horseback; but in a satellite, surreal.’