Conspiracy Case

Janzen’s Conspiracy Case features installation and performance elements. Originally mounted in July and August 2012 at the Station House Gallery in Williams Lake BC, this project involved Janzen creating his own satirical law enforcement agency to investigate and surveil the activities of local burrowing animals, such as ground squirrels and marmots. He transformed the gallery space into a police-style headquarters as the space from which he could conduct investigative business, and developed a fictional law-enforcement agency—INTERPOL International Task Force on Rodent Crimes (IITFRC). Using a series of still and video cameras, he would collect evidence of rodents’ assumed guilty activities in the surrounding areas. According to Janzen, his intention with this piece was “to implicate the local public, posting “Wanted” notices around the town and inviting informants to come forward (many did).” In creating a mock scenario or parody of the policing strategies used for surveillance, although most commonly of human animals, Janzen’s project highlights the structures and systems in place to map, track, monitor, and potentially criminalize the everyday activities of individuals. You can see some of the Conspiracy Case surveillance videos on Janzen’s vimeo site at https://vimeo.com/58598922.