Saturday, March 15, 2025
Beverly Chang
Wharton SoCal Culture Club – Private Tour of Wende Museum, Saturday, March 15, 1:00 pm PST
Join us for a private tour of the Wende Museum in Culver City and its current exhibition Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency, which unveiled as part of the Getty’s PST ART initiative that explores the connection between art and science. The tour will be led by Michael Balot-Garza, the museum’s Head of Education.
Caption: Checkpoint Charlie border guard training materials, 1975-1989, East Germany.
Image courtesy of the Wende Museum
Exhibition Overview
In recent decades, technological advances have supercharged surveillance. Online, personal data are automatically collected and analyzed on a mass scale. Algorithms watch, listen, track, and identify people, complementing and sometimes replacing human eyes and ears. Powerful combinations of surveillance software and hardware, such as surveillance cameras outfitted with real-time facial recognition, are conquering public spaces. These technologies are often misleadingly presented as though they were pure innovation and have no history.
The exhibition Counter/Surveillance traces the historical roots of such surveillance devices and methods, and the Cold War dynamics that shaped and spread them. It explores the precursors of current biometric surveillance in Cold War manuals for police, border guards and spies; in forensic portraiture; and in the little-known early history of computer facial recognition, revealing links between forensics, science, art, and popular culture. It also traces similarities between Cold War surveillance devices and methods used in East and West, from miniature cameras and listening devices to forensic composite kits. These not only point to a shared technical history, but are also indicative of exchange, inspiration, and imitation across the Iron Curtain. Technical exchanges with allies in the Global South ensured further international dissemination.
Then as now, the skills and tools of secret services were sometimes mirrored by the creativity of their targets. Throughout history, dissidents, activists, and artists have found ways to “watch the watchers” in order to evade, criticize, and expose them – sometimes using the very same surveillance methods and tools deployed against them, from covert photography to profiling and encryption. Others repurposed surveillance tools to make art or created artworks that correct and reclaim the distorted narratives that emerge from personal surveillance files. By showing the rich history of such acts of countersurveillance, the exhibition calls attention to the many ways in which people have reclaimed agency, it celebrates human ingenuity vis-à-vis state control, and it shows how art can be an inspirational signpost in the process.
Exhibition description from the Wende Museum website (wendemuseum.org).
When: Saturday, March 15, 1-3 pm
Where: Wende Museum, 10808 Culver Blvd. (near Overland), Culver City, CA 90230
Cost: No charge for Wharton SoCal Members and up to two guests; $10.00 for Non-Members. Space is limited.
Parking: Free parking is available in the city lots adjacent to the museum.
Public Transportation: The museum is served by Culver City bus lines 3 and 7; nearest Metro Station is the Culver stop on the Metro E (Expo) Line.
Hosts & Contact Info:
Karrye Braxton WG86
Independent Global Project Manager
Karrye Braxton is an Independent Global Project Manager, focusing on small and medium sized businesses in emerging economies. Karrye was a U.S. Agency for International Development Foreign Service Officer in Ukraine, before she cofounded and scaled up a firm in US government contracting, focusing on international development in infrastructure advisory services, working globally over 20 years. Karrye also advocated for small businesses and consumers to build greater equity in the American economy. She speaks Russian & German and enjoys International Travel & Film as well as Baseball & World Cup Soccer. Karrye grew up in Detroit and hails from a Hampton Roads, Virginia family. She moved from Washington, DC and is excited to join family members in SoCal after spending the pandemic in Atlanta, caring for her elderly father. In addition to her Wharton MBA, Karrye has an AB from Harvard University and a MA In International Relations from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Beverly Chang WG90
Beverly Chang is an award-winning marketing executive and advisor to organizations in the arts, culture, design, and tourism sectors. As president of The BRC Group, Inc., she provides counsel to organizations and creative talent looking to bolster awareness of products and services as well as launch new initiatives. These engagements have focused on developing strategic plans, conceptualizing museum exhibitions and related programming, directing new product development. and overseeing the planning of multi-tiered marketing campaigns.
Prior to founding The BRC Group, she managed national marketing for Disney Art Editions, responsible for expanding distribution through art galleries and Disney retail outlets, organizing high-visibility auctions of collectible artwork with Sotheby’s, and collaborating with legendary animators to create products based on archival materials.
She holds a master’s degree in business administration from The Wharton School and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations from the University of Southern California.
Shaina Oake WG19
Shaina Oake is a leader in business development in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector with experience spanning multinational pharma to academia. She is currently Associate Director, Business Development and Acquisitions at AbbVie where she focuses on bringing innovations in neuroscience into the AbbVie portfolio. Previously, she has held roles at biotech companies A2 Bio and Denali Therapeutics, the UCLA Technology Development Group and in life sciences consulting at ClearView Healthcare Partners.
Shaina holds an MBA with a major in Health Care Management from the Wharton School, a Master's degree in Bioengineering and a Bachelor's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
In her free time, Shaina enjoys spending time with her husband and two cats, hiking, scuba diving and pilates.
