Redefining the witness: “CSI” and “Law & Order” as narratives of surveillance

Abstract

This thesis explores the normalization of surveillance technology in today's society by analyzing the relationship between the body and technology. Turning to popular culture, the relationship is investigated through the changing nature of the role of the witness. The surveillance narratives of the Law & Order and CSI franchises provide for a prosthetic and posthumanist understanding of the human subject in relation to witnessing, respectively. Dependent on how each franchise approaches the body, the subject, technology and the truth, the witness provides for a dialogue of enhancement, replacement, agency, neutrality, and the distinction between the embodied identity versus the digital double.