Member Profile

Jessica Lauren Olivares

CASTAC-Net Member

Postdoctoral Fellow, UTMB

Contributing Editor, Platypus, The CASTAC Blog

Research Interests

Applied Anthropology | carcerality | Critical race theory | Ethnographic Theory | Feminist STS | Medical anthropology | Urban ethnography | UX Research |

Contact

Email

Contributions to Platypus, The CASTAC Blog

View all of Jessica's posts on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.

Optics and Fluidity: Evading Surveillance in Hong Kong

 At the Hong Kong airport, thousands of protesters line the arrivals hall. Creating a corridor for passengers to walk through, they stand silently, using their right hand to cover their right eye. The silence is occasionally perforated by calls of “Hāng Góng Gā Yáu!” and “Xiāng Gang Jīa Yóu 香港加油 – “Hong Kong Add Oil”— expressions of solidarity and encouragement that have become fuel for protests that have been ongoing and lively since March. Jingcha Huan Yan 警察還眼 – or, “police: return the eye” – has become a rallying cry of the movement following a police shooting of a young woman in the eye in Tsim Sha Tsui 尖沙嘴. Protesters ritually cover their right eyes or patch them shut with bloodied bandages. Others change their social media profile picture to an artistic rendering of a woman with an eyepatch. Twitter hashtag campaigns such as #Eye4HK have gained international traction, with (read more...)