Video Camera Surveillance:Activism & Art

Carina Ockedahl

The Surveillance Camera

The Surveillance Camera

The Surveillance Camera

• The concept is reminiscent of Michel Foucault: Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism.

• http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Artist Group

• There are several artists which use the video camera as an art medium, and extract the concept of surveillance in society while adapting it to their art piece and/or activist statement.

• Of these groups, I have selected two for this presentation.

Artist Group

• The Surveillance Camera Players

• SVEN: Surveillance Video Entertainment Network

The Surveillance Camera Players

• “America’s foremost anti-surveillance camera group documents its scripts, performances, maps and walking tours, and offers analyses of the right to privacy, the militarization of the police, the ideology of transparency, the mass psychology of fascism, the society of the spectacle, the PATRIOT Act, Rudy Giuliani, September 11th, face recognition software, reality TV, webcams and wireless systems, among other topics”. – SCP

The Surveillance Camera Players

• Basically, they are a group of artists) opposed to surveillance cameras in public spaces.

• They demonstrate this through silent performances using (specifically) adapted plays performed directly in front of surveillance cameras.

• i.e. Orwell’s 1984 and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

The Surveillance Camera Players

• Main site• http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html

• Video• http://www.factoryschool.org/pubs/scp/

• Other Links• http://www.disinfo.com/archive/

pages/dossier/id323/pg1/

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COS0OonwRx4

The Surveillance Camera Players

SVEN

• SVEN - Surveillance Video Entertainment Network, aka "AI to the People," is a real-time video performance system that takes a humorous but critical look at artificial intelligence surveillance algorithms by developing techniques that detect when people look like rock stars instead of criminals, terrorists, or other "undesirable passersby". - deprogramming.us

SVEN

• In other words, SVEN has created a software application that allows them (with the use of cameras) to change the dynamic that is usually created by a surveillance camera, and turning it into something fun and humoristic: everyone becomes a rock star with their own music video!

SVEN

• Equipment• http://deprogramming.us/sven/

software.html

• Main Site with Video• http://deprogramming.us/ai/

CONCLUSION

• The notion of surveillance can be strongly debated. There are those that feel the need for its safety (thus comfort), and then there is a need for the freedom of privacy.

• Video Camera Surveillance is an interesting medium that can and has been applied in various forms of art.

CONCLUSION

• It is interesting to note that between the two artist groups, one group was strongly opposed to surveillance cameras in public spaces, although it was through the use of these devices that they chose to promote their ideas.

• The second group took away the right of freedom and privacy from those caught on camera, although the person’s usual sense of being surveyed was changed once he/or she became a rock star! (when the dynamic changed).

CONCLUSION

• There are many interesting ideas to consider in both the use of technology (for these projects), and the message being conveyed to an audience.

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