Artist Simon Weckert has created Digital Camouflage, a shirt designed to challenge the computer-vision systems increasingly used to monitor public spaces.

The garment uses an adversarial pattern, a visual technique designed to manipulate the data received by machine-learning systems. Applied to clothing, the pattern targets visual characteristics that surveillance algorithms use to identify human figures, potentially causing an AI system to misinterpret or fail to recognise the wearer.

Weckert developed the work in response to the expansion of automated surveillance in Berlin, particularly around Kottbusser Tor, where computer-vision technology is being introduced to analyse behaviour in public spaces. According to the artist, such systems can classify everyday actions as “normal” or “suspicious,” raising questions about privacy, consent and how people are interpreted by automated technologies.

The project also highlights the opacity surrounding surveillance technologies. Weckert argues that many systems deployed in public spaces cannot be independently tested or fully scrutinised, while their algorithms and manufacturers may remain undisclosed.