HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE SEEN BY A MACHINE LIVELY DEVICES IN DIGITAL HORROR

The technology we surround ourselves with is becoming more and more autonomous. Our devices know us, or try to know us, they gather data about us constantly. They use that data to draw conclusions about us, to profile us, to recognise our patterns and predict our movements and desires. So what does it feel like to be watched by a machine? How do we make sense of our present state of concurrent awareness of and obliviousness of living our everyday lives under ubiquitous surveillance? Surveillance and machine vision technologies are often talked about with a certain level of unease, discomfort, or anxiety but what are the meanings and narratives through which these devices are imagined to be scary? This paper will explore these questions by analysing a selection of creepypasta stories that draw their horror from the experience of being watched by or through a machine.