Today guest lecturer and artist John Paul Bichard came to speak to our class. He showed us a few works in progress that sonsisted of video footage taken in Stockholm during urban military exercises. The music which accompanied the works was done by Edwin Morris. He will be presenting Brain Ball, a project that we worked on while an artist in residence at the Interactive Institute in Sweden, at Wired’s Nextfest this weekend.

The following is a narrative bibliography of selected works from a more complete bibiography that can be found here.

Books:

Greenwald, Glenn. How Would A Patriot Act?: Defending American Values from a President Run Amok. San Francisco: Working Assets Publishing, 2006.

This book is a collection of posts from Glenn Greenwald’s blog Unclaimed Territory (glenngreenwald.blogspot.com). Greenwald was an apolitical constitutional lawyer prior to the Bush administration’s attacks on civil liberties following 9/11. His blog has been, and continues to be, one of the most inspirational, credible resources for gauging the political climate and happenings in Washington.

Levin, Thomas Y., Ursula Frohne, and Peter Weibel, eds. CTRL [SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2002.

This collection of essays from many prominent artists and scholars takes a look at how art has dealt with the issue of surveillance throughout the past forty years.

Lyon, David. Surveillance after September 11. Cambridge [England]: Polity Press, 2003.

David Lyon is one of the preeminent academic theorists writing about surveillance and privacy and the resulting cultural, political, and social ramifications. This book covers events directly applicable to my thesis as it takes a close look at the changes in surveillance post 9/11 both in the United States and around the world. I plan to read two more of his books which I have listed below.

Orwell, George. 1984. Signet Classics, 1950.

George Orwell’s book 1984 was written over 50 years ago and yet is perhaps more relevant now than at any other time. My thesis topic addresses many of my perceived similarities between the current presidential administration and the government that is behind Orwell’s “Big Brother”.

Wilson, Daniel H. How To Survive A Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005.

This book is a great example of how to deal with a technical, sometime complex subject (robotics technology) and dealing with it in a humorous, satirical manner. I am especially drawn to the “how-to” instructional style of the book and the illustrations.

Articles:

Koerner, Brendan I. “Your Cellphone is a Homing Device.” July|August 2003. Legal Affairs: The Magazine at the Intersection of Law and Life. http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/July-August-2003/feature_koerner_julaug03.msp

This article identifies the many ways we are surveilled as we go about our daily lives: riding the subway, carrying a cell phone, and using our debit cards and addresses the issue of the ownership of this information and its potential for abuse. One of the most important messages from this article is that the laws which protect our privacy often lag far behind the technology that collects it.

Marks, Paul. “Pentagon Sets Its Sights on Social Networking Websites.” 9 June 2006. NewScientist.com.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025556.200?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19025556.200

This article rises the question of why we voluntary release personal information online and how this information can be used to supplement existing surveillance data. The use of this information in this manner would significantly impact the willingness of people to participate in what has become a very communal internet.

Port, Otis. “Keeping an Eye on the Snoops.” 6 June 2006. BusinessWeek online
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2006/tc20060605_901175.htm?campaign_id=bier_tcj

This article doesn’t offer much new information but is a nice summary of the current privacy issues facing Americans and the hands of our government.

Rothfeder, Jeffrey. “The Death of Privacy.” 5 September 2006. CIO Insight.
http://www.cioinsight.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=187895,00.asp

“The Death of Privacy” addresses the responsibilities of business to protect sensitive consumer information and what happens when it is released. The role of business in the privacy debate is of special note as it was corporate entities which enabled the NSA to access what should have been private information.

Projects:

Critical Art Ensemble: GenTerra, 2001-2002. http://www.critical-art.net/biotech/genterra/index.html

CAE’s work often co-opts the language of those that they are critiquing. Their GenTerra project was the initial inspiration for the route my project has taken. I first saw CAE’s work as a part of the Gene(sis) exhibit when I worked for the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle where they presented Cult of the New Eve.

Lisa Erdman: Annual Checkup: Pharmaceuticals for the 21st Century, 2005-2006. http://www.annualcheckup.org/

I just recently was told about this project and it utilizes the marketing language of a specific industry to make outlandish, satirical claims which critique the industry that it borrows from. This is much the same approach that I am considering taking for the realization of my thesis topic.

Wishlist (books):

Ball, Kristie and Frank Webster, eds. The Intensification of Surveillance: Crime, Terrorism, and Warefare in the Information Age. London; Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2003.

Conviser, Josh. Echelon. Del Rey, 2006.

Elmer, Greg. Profiling Machines: Mapping the Personal Information Economy. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.

Haggerty, Kevin D. and Richard V. Ericson, eds. The New Politics of Surveillance and Visibility. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.

Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, John Jay, Clinton, Rossiter, Clarles R. Kesler (editor). The Federalist Papers. Signet Classics, 2003.

Jacobson, Sid and Ernie Colon. The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.

Lyon, David. Surveillance as Social Sorting: Privacy, Risk, and Digital Discrimination. London; New York: Routledge, 2003.

Lyon, David. Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life. Buckingham [England]; Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2001.

O’Harrow, Robert. No Place to Hide. New York: Free Press, 2005.

Schneier, Bruce. Beyond Fear. Springer, 2006.

Solove, Daniel J. The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age. New York: New York University Press, 2004.

Solove, Daniel J. and Marc Rotenberg. Information Privacy Law. Aspen Publishers, 2003.

Smith, Robert Ellis. Ben Franklin’s Web Site: Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet. Providence, RI: Privacy Journal, 2004.

Smith, Robert Ellis. Comilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws. Privacy Journal, 2002.

Zureik, Elia and Mark B. Salter. Global Surveillance and Policing: Borders, Security, Identity. Willan Publishing, 2005.