The Observer Effect is a live arts event staged within a public space. It is an urban history tour set 14 years into the future. The tour guide recounts the sanitised events of the 2028 privacy riots, which occurred in response to two events: the creation of a biometric database for residents of the city (ostensibly for efficient delivery of city services), and the local police force being granted access to private live camera feeds. As the group move through the square, they learn that the impact was far more wide-reaching and insidious than the official version of events.

Nehal El-Hadi is a writer, researcher, and editor. She is the interim editor-in-chief at The Conversation Canada, an academic news site, and Editor-in-Chief of Studio, a magazine dedicated to Canadian craft and design. Trained as an environmental journalist and urban planning scholar, Nehal’s work explores the relationships that render us human; these include the interplays between us and technologies, objects, and spaces/places.