There's More Than One Way to Stare Down a Camera The Messy Feedback Loops of Surveillance Art
by Jen Graves The park outside my office window, Cal Anderson on Capitol Hill, was recently outfitted with three city-owned surveillance cameras. I look at the playing field occasionally; the cameras watch it all the time. These are the first cameras to be installed in a Seattle park, but not the last. More will come: to Hing Hay Park in the International District, Occidental Park in Pioneer Square, and Victor Steinbrueck Park near Pike Place Market. The cameras operate continuously, but city bureaucrats don't monitor them unless a complaint is filed or 911 is called. They demonstrate Jeremy Bentham's principle of internalized surveillance, that people watch over themselves on behalf of the authorities when they know they can be watched but don't know when or by whom. Then there is the raging flip side to the fear of surveillance: the desire to be seen. Nobody has to talk bloggers or reality-TV stars into "oversharing"; they joyfully relinquish their rights to privacy, even if they regret it in the morning (an experience that, of course, must be publicly narrated as well). We have a love-hate relationship with surveillance. It's no wonder the American government finds itself engaged in a global war whose fundamental challenge is finding the enemy. This country has been projecting images into the world for decades without doing much deep looking in return. The global "clash of cultures" is, among other things, a problem of vision. more... http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=703426 _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
