CCS - Stars Of CCTV
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
I love that quote! I got this from the Surveillance Camera Players site (http://www.notbored.org) and it is a warning fromhistory perhaps far more relevant today then it was in Franklin’s time. The most interesting thing for me on their site was a MASSIVE list of visits they had received from various shadowy government organizations which is pretty worrying considering the harmless satire the site-makers promote. I am always interested in the ways technology seems to give with one hand what it takes away with the other when it comes to our personal freedoms. CCTV cameras are just one facet of this era of high tech, all pervasive surveillance, at the lunatic fringe the US government has been mooting plans to fit face recognition software into cameras in areas identified as key terrorist targets matching the features of every pedestrian in the area to their list of potential suicide bombers. Critics have pointed out that the terrorist masterminds the government have files on never actually take part in the bombings themselves and that someone could foil this multi-million dollar, cutting edge defence system by wearing a pair of large sunglasses and a fake beard.
Now you don't even need to be within view of a camera for your movements to be tracked, you just need to have your mobile phone switched on. The art collective Glowlab created a piece of art called 'The Transparent City' where a visualisation of an urban landscape without buildings and roads was created where only the movements of mobile phone users were visible. They highlight in a novel way the growing shift of power in our society between the watcher and the watched (http://www.glowlab.com/lab2/issue.php?project_id=150&issue_name=14). The War on Terror can almost be seen to have lead to a breakdown of trust between the government and the people in the UK, with the introduction of ID cards and detention without trial for terror suspects being just two facets of this. I believe projects like Glowlab’s are ever more important in raising the public awareness of the unprecedented levels of surveillance available to our own authorities.
While governments and businesses are rushing to find new ways to film and track our every movement we can now get our own broadcasts out there more easily then ever before and sometimes the two can even cross over. Artist Michelle Teran (www.ubermatic.org/life) took a TV set around cities broadcasting in real time images from the CCTV networks that surround us. The (In)Security Camera (www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/003396.php) is another interesting example of artists trying to make sense of the ever watching eyes of the CCTV cameras while http://observingsurveillance.org/ is a good example of one of the many sites set up to coordinate anti-surveillance movements in America. Meanwhile in Britain, the most watched country on Earth, we now have cameras fitted with loudspeakers with a direct line to a Police control centre so orders can be barked at lawbreaking citizens (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=405477&in_page_id=1770). Technology it seems is catching up with nightmare vision of Orwell’s 1984 and people aren’t missing out the chance to point out the parallels with a slew of sites like http://www.orwelltoday.com/surveillance.shtml. Privacy, surveillance technology and government motives are major issues of our times and you probably guessed by now that I am one of those feeling increasingly uneasy about it all while being fascinated by the social implications. America’s National Security Agency especially fires my imagination because of their undoubted prowess with all types of surveillance technology and their shadowy motives and lack of accountability. Do they have a Neurophone? A device which creates 3D holographic sound in a localized area of the earth . . . from a satellite (David Koresh was apparently primed in this way)? How about brain wave monitors that allow their agents to literally read your thoughts? The fact that these supernatural feats have been attributed to the NSA hint at its actual power and influence which is ever growing thanks to a new age of US paranoia. Definitely an area I would like to investigate further.
posted by nick_gerrard @ 7:23 AM
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