[-empyre-] week three | locative scraping and counter-surveillance

[Dale Hudson]

Thanks, Robert and Michael — and apologies for the delayed reply.

Robert, Interesting observation that our inboxes seem like streams of data rather than collections of documents. Your code visualizes a way of seeing this data as potentially meaningful information that seems a contestation of ways that our data is used for surveillance. 

Michael, "Insurance.AE256" and “PRISM” are fascinating exploration of comparable questions of how data is transformed into information that is potentially useful or harmful. The quote by Snowden is a chilling illustration. 

The various projects by both of you are continually being refreshed in their relevance and urgency. The recent panic and paranoia that I’ve been seeing in the news in France and even far away in the United States seems like a replay of the panic and paranoia around 9/11 and 7/7 that was instrumentalized in some devastating ways. 

All of the recent fears over Daesh come shortly after the criticisms of the Digital India project that Modi’s government is promoting (overseas in California and England) as a nonpolitical improvement in infrastructure. The violence against voices of dissent have been very disturbing, as have the overly racist statements by U.S. politicians. 

Thanks to both of you for helping us to see through the ways that we are collectively coaxed into complicity through practices in journalism and security.

Best,
Dale


On Dec 1, 2015, at 3:45, Michael Takeo Magruder <m at takeo.org> wrote:


> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hello Dale,
> 
> My more recent explorations regarding "the fabrication of truth in news" in
> many ways reflect upon the changing nature of journalism in today's data
> disclosure/social media culture. Two projects come to mind:
> "Insurance.AES256" and "PRISM".
> 
> "Insurance.AES256" was produced in 2011 during the height of the
> WikiLeaks/Julian Assange controversy for the exhibition "All That Fits: The
> Aesthetics of Journalism" (QUAD, UK). The project sought to consider not
> only this particular story, but more importantly, to question how
> organisations like WikiLeaks and personalities like Assange now have the
> ability to shift/subvert journalistic practice in ways that can be either
> beneficial or problematic for society. 
> 
> The second work, "PRISM" was commissioned in 2014 by the UK theatre company
> Headlong to coincide with their (now internationally acclaimed) production
> of George Orwell's "1984". The artwork sought to draw comparisons between
> Edward Snowden and Orwell's fictional protagonist Winston Smith - as both
> could be considered 'everymen' of their generation. The installation's
> central component was created from algorithmically remixed interview footage
> of Snowden combined with flickering snapshots of his disclosed data. This
> endless video montage provided a narrative for the work, while the
> surrounding elements of the installation incorporated shifting streams of
> live personal data that had been scraped from the social media sites which
> were being targeted by the NSA's mass surveillance programmes.  However, the
> point of the work was not just to reflect on the present concerns over
> privacy and surveillance, but also to consider how the "truth" surrounding
> any individual can now be fabricated. To quote Snowden: "...it's getting to
> the point where you don't have to have done anything wrong. You simply have
> to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody - even by a wrong call. And
> then they can [] go back in time and scrutinize every decision you've ever
> made, every friend you've ever discussed something with. And attack you on
> that basis to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life and paint
> anyone in the context of a wrongdoer..."
> 
> Insurance.AES256
> http://www.takeo.org/nspace/2011-insurance_aes256/ 
> 
> All That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism
> http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/exhibition/all-fits-aesthetics-journalism 
> 
> PRISM
> http://www.takeo.org/nspace/2014-prism/ 
> 
> Headlong - Digital Double 
> http://headlong.co.uk/
> http://www.digital-double.com/digital-double/ 
> 
> -------------------------------------------
> Michael Takeo Magruder
> www.takeo.org
> -------------------------------------------
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> [mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Dale Hudson
> Sent: 24 November 2015 20:09
> To: soft_skinned_space
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] week three | locative scraping and
> counter-surveillance
> 
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu

On Nov 26, 2015, at 19:39, Robert Spahr <rob at robertspahr.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> 
>> Can you say more about the databases that some of the Crufts projects scrape? 
>> Are they all publicly available? I’m thinking of images from CCTV cameras and other private and public surveillance systems.
> 
> 
> Almost all of my cruft pull from publicly available websites. The CCTV
> cameras are also available on the web, sometimes unintentionally. So the
> web is a big list of changing data, that for my own creative practice I
> find it most helpful to visualize these databases as streams of
> information that my cruft dips into, and produces a snapshot.
> 
> I have found my own email inbox for example to feel more like a stream
> of data, rather than the traditional metaphor of an inbox of documents.
> It's hard not to feel overwhelmed by the ever increasing data. My
> automated code has produced thousands of images, videos and textual
> works that I have not seen. Somehow having the archive is as important
> as having seen all the images and data produced. But again there is a
> pressure of having an ever increasing archive of data.
> 
>> 
>> Have people been rallying for increased surveillance in the United States since the Paris (and Beirut and Bamoko) attacks?
>> 
> 
> 
> From my perspective the people want something to be done, as long as it
> makes them feel safe. The politicians and some of the networks,
> especially CNN, are fueling our fears. Removing encryption will do
> little to help, but will do everything to allow those in power to know
> what everyone else is doing, who they are talking too, and when they
> might be organizing.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Robert Spahr
> http://www.robertspahr.com
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
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