Archive for the ‘ surveillance ’ Category
By incorporating elements of the dérive and détournement as well as Steve Mann’s use of sousveillance we have managed to spark the aforementioned irrevolution by playing with not fighting against the all-knowing spectacle. We’ve managed to subvert without making it obvious, without bringing too much attention to ourselves or our mission. Our message and our goal in this [ READ MORE ]
“The reality shows are only side-effects, and moreover mystifying, because in indicting them as manipulation, the critics assume that there is somewhere an original form of life … This criticism is over, as is every Situationist criticism of the ’spectacle’ and the concept of ’spectacle,’ as also in substance all criticism of ‘alienation.’ Unfortunately, I [ READ MORE ]
Voltaire once commented that the Holy Roman Empire — now known as more-or-less Germany — was “neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.” How is this the case? Well, this might have been the first recorded and recognized instance of the Big Lie technique of propaganda, wherein an enormous lie is passed off as truth, to [ READ MORE ]
Modern society, particularly modern American society, is endlessly patting itself on the back. It thinks of itself as a spectacular society, a fantastic society which is more or less the most fantastic place which there is or ever has been on Earth to make one’s home. These things are partly true. What does it mean, [ READ MORE ]
One of the most mysterious and wonderful things about physics for me is the ‘electromagnetic spectrum.’ I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that this huge spectrum of divergent phenomena — the light we see, the radio we hear, the TV we watch, the magnetism we feel, the microwaves that cook our food, et cetera [ READ MORE ]
so, i’m at work. and despite the title of this post and our reading of this week, working does not, in fact, rule. but i’m reading this article and i’m going to jot down some comments informally whilst i do so. this blog will be my pharmakon. one interesting aspect of CCTV surveillance, for example, is that by [ READ MORE ]
I like this paragraph, from this week’s readings. It features that grand signal word – supplement! That’s my cue to pull out my worn old copy of de la grammatologie and give the text a wee deconstructive shakedown. Let’s see what falls out. “CCTV catches criminals. It spots crimes, identifies lawbreakers and helps convict the guilty. [ READ MORE ]
Deleuze’s ‘postscript’ raises some interesting questions about the contemporary validity of the kind of disciplinary, panoptic model of social control outlined in Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. Deleuze posits that these kinds of disciplinary societies, having succeeded the ‘societies of sovereignty’ in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are now undergoing a transformation into what he calls [ READ MORE ]
who needs written content? banksy says it all for me. [ READ MORE ]
so, apparently, just by tracking one’s browsing habits – literally, such basic data as how long you spend on the average site, how many sites you visit in the average browsing session – a virtual ‘clickprint’ can be created that will be matched against your online persona (‘digital body,’ perhaps) to confirm your identity. now, not [ READ MORE ]