It’s the third week of the semester and I just now feel like my head is back in thesis mode. The question raised lately (and constantly) is what do I want the project to be and who is my audience. Does this project want to be simply a satirical sociopolitical commentary that is intelligent, witty, and subversive? Something that provokes a emotional, visceral response? The answer is yes on both accounts. I think. Where do these two ideas meet? How can a sly, perhaps overly academic satire in the spirit of Horace, Juvenal, and Swift engage an audience, impart understanding, and possibly alter perceptions about surveillance and privacy? How can I engage my three audience groups: those in the defense industry,
art / academic world denizens, and middle America “security moms” and others that constitute the bread and butter of the neocon dogma.

Those questions aside / looming overhead, more questions arise:

Idea: Create a more thuggish, guerilla arm of the P.G.
Why?: To create a Brechtian dialectic from which to approach the issues at hand and allow me the freedom to create more agitprop, dissident media.
What’s the concept / form?: The group, currently named “ipsos custodes” from the Latin phrase “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” or “Who watches the watchers” co-opts the PG name and creates “promotional” works that attempt to instill fear in the same individuals about the surveillance efforts that PG promises will protect them. The PG will then be able to publicly denounce the activities of the “ipsos custodes” while secretly funding their efforts to further the culture of fear created by the nebulous terrorist threat.
Media: Stencil graffiti art, postcard(s), sticker(s), digital still(s) - something quickly and easily disseminated on/offline

Idea: Create a service / product offering that users can sign up for
Why?: Engage those who believe that giving up a little privacy in exchange for a little security, though anthema to Benjamin Franklin’s beliefs, is a good thing and allowing them to take an active role / making them “put their money where their mouth is”.
What’s the concept / form?: Allow visitors to the P.G. site to download a keylogger or other spyware that will report back to the P.G. to gather information about the user’s computer usage habits, either for better or worse. This questions the level of compliance or complicity to willfully bring a surveillance system into the home, the last bastion of privacy. Next step, Orwell’s telescreens. What else can I ask of users? A survey? Boring. Sign up your first born for early recruitment in the War on Terror? Crusader badges for those who sign up?

Idea: The P.G. industrial video
Why?: Provide a video introduction the P.G. and their information gathering and analysis methods.
What’s the concept / form?: On the surface the industrial is seeming legitimate, the script and voice over is on par with other defense contractor speak but the accompanying imagery is highly satirical pointing out the absurdity within the text. Functions similar to the WORD segment on the Colbert Report.

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.

http://www.nyc2123.com

Over spring break I was invited to travel with Performance Lab 115 to Budapest. Last summer I acted as production designer for their performance of Ashlin Halfnight’s God’s Waiting Room presented as part of the New York International Fringe Festival and which went on to win the Overall Excellence Award For Best Play. Their international tour of God’s Waiting Room to Budapest was accompanied by another new work from Ashlin Halfnight titled A Hush Hush Hidden Thing for which I also acted as production designer. The trip was a success for the company and my first work-related international travel. In the coming weeks I will be creating a short video for the company to send to its donors and sponsors.

Fiona Raby “Project #26765: Flirt”

http://a.parsons.edu/~srance/fall05/major_studio1/readings/flirt.pdf

This article

Reading 33

Matt Locke “Being here – some moving stories about mobile technology” (Receiver Issue 05)

http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/05/articles/inner03a.html

In this article Matt Locke addresses the changing notion of location and how mobile technologies affect our idea of space. While our present state of always connectedness makes place less significant there is still an importance placed on location and how it relates to our “signal strength” or connection to the omnipresent “network”. Locke also gives two examples of mobile projects; one which attempts to change the user’s location by adding a fictional hazard to their physical location as seen by the network, the other rewards users for maintaining a constant daily routine with consequences for deviation.

I find the idea of eddies and shadows of information and signal and how they relate to physical architecture very interesting. This unseen data stream, influenced like the flow of water or air, creates a new topography defined by the information which keeps us connected and lifts the physical barriers of location. It sounds like a great mapping project to visualize the information as it travels around us.

Reading 34

Mizuko Ito “Mobiles and the appropriation of space,” (Receiver Issue 08)

http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/08/articles/index07.html

In this essay Mizuko Ito examines the way in which the mobile phone has changed the methods of communication between Japanese youth in co-presence, or “flesh meet” / “meet space” interactions. She and her researchers examine how the events prior to, during, and following a physical meeting are affected by the new modes of communication offered by the cell phone. The main differences that she identifies are how physical meetings are made more fluid and are subject to less rigid times and locations of meeting, enable for extended social interactions by including friends that are separated by space, and allow for more immediate access to information pertinent to the meeting and quicker post-meeting follow up. It is this immediacy and casualness that are facilitated by the use of the cell phone as a mobile communication device, always keeping the user up to date and constantly adjusting to new circumstances.

While her essay focuses on the habits of Japanese youth, I think that many of the same conclusions and methods of communication are true of many younger generation cell phone users. One of the most interesting things for me is that in this always-on/connected youth culture there seems to be a desire to eradicate any sort of downtime and instead fill it with short messages or seemingly frivolous communication. I also believe that the internet and its constantly updating and responding to changing information has largely shaped this sort of communication while MTV and videogames have furthered this short attention span wielding user that craves constant entertainment or other mediated engagement. Personally I like to turn my phone off every once and awhile and become unreachable.

]]> http://www.shaunrance.com/parsons/?feed=rss2&p=160 http://www.shaunrance.com/parsons/?p=158 http://www.shaunrance.com/parsons/?p=158#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:10:52 +0000 shaun http://www.shaunrance.com/parsons/?p=158 After spending the past few weeks helping organize the DT spring show at Felissimo and installing BarTalk, the piece that I, along with Alexis Lloyd and Ana Velez, have in the show, it’s time for the opening.

Midtown’s a strange place and a whole different NY than I experience on a daily basis but if you’re up for it you can check out the show at the Felssimo Design House, 56th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

10fl.parsons.edu

Superstars:

Daniel Brown
www.play-create.com
www.danielbrowns.com

Gary Hill
Titles by Gary Hill at Electronic Arts Intermix

Bruce Mau
www.experimentaljetset.nl
Transmaterial (website) (book)

Nando Costa
Linn Olofsdottier Costa
Modernista!

Some other links mentioned in class:
Josh Davis / Praystation
James Patterson / PRESSTUBE
John Maeda
Plumb Design (now Thinkmap)
aesthetics + computation group
karlssonwilker inc.’s TELLMEWHY : The First 24 Months of a New York Design Company

Some other artists that I’m considering as my “superstar” (I threw a design firm and artist collective in for good measure):
Tomato
Blast Theory
Marina Zurkow
Camille Utterback
Anthony McCall

For my field guide I would like to focus on security / surveillance cameras. Here are some related links:
Institue for Applied Autonomy
New York Surveillance Camera Players