Surveillance has inspired creators of pop culture for decades. From the rotary phone spyware in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” (1974) to Phil Alden Robinson’s 1992 computer hacking caper “Sneakers,” filmmakers have shown how technology can be abused for the purposes of authoritarianism, control and greed. 

Musicians like Run the Jewels have also sought to make sense of the potential pitfalls of connectivity. In 2015, the electronic producer Holly Herndon released “Platform,” an experimental album that works through themes of surveillance by sampling everyday sounds, such as fingers tapping on a keyboard and a Skype session. 

The subject also lends itself easily to illustration and has already been mined by graphic novels like the acclaimed “Verax: The True History of Whistleblowers, Drone Warfare, and Mass Surveillance” by Pratap Chaterjee. In 2010, European Digital Rights, a Brussels based non-profit that campaigns on issues relating to privacy and freedom of expression, published “Under Surveillance,” which deals with the subjects of data protection, counter-terror measures and privacy.

“The Machine Never Blinks,” a new graphic novel, takes a 360-degree view of the history of surveillance. Rolling through more existential subject areas, including the humanities, religion and philosophy, the ancient story of the Greek Trojan horse entering Troy is compared to the way governments now use malware to monitor populations. The Bible is also reexamined, showing the way that God’s watchful eyes – as well as those of the angels – are worthy of praise, while ordinary people should largely refrain from spying on others.