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SA VIRTUAL Group: 1st streaming

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Surveillant Architectures (Virtual) Group: Referring to a contemporary cultural discourse around time, space,bodies, audience, public space and landscapes. Events series with guest speakers on site and via internet-streaming; VIRTUAL will refer to readings and lectures or interviews with surveillance >specialists< and >privileged observers< of phenomena involved in the shift of borders between public or semi-public space and private sphere.

1st streaming
October 19th 6 pm and October 20th 11 am

http://www.livestream.com/virtual_group

VIRTUAL # 0 was recorded October 12th at room2, glasmoog, cologne, with the participation of New Zealand artist and radio-speaker Joanne Moar. The keywords of this contribution are: backlash, database, virtuality, iteration, index.

virtual #1 left channel virtual #1 right channel

room2, glasmoog, cologne 2010-oct-12th, 1:30 pm

VIRTUAL # 1 will be streamed October 19th and 20th. If you are at room2 now, please take place in front of the microphone and reprise the lines you can follow listening to the earphones.

Britisches Verteidigungsministerium stellt Kampfjetdrohne Taranis vor

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Taranis

Das britische Militär muss wohl auch zeigen, wofür Steuergelder rausgeblasen werden, weshalb das Verteidigungsministerium jetzt die Drohne Taranis vorgestellt hat, die gerade von BAE Systems entwickelt wird. Wobei “vorgestellt” bei so einer Technologie eben heißt, dass der Öffentlichkeit ein kurzer Blick gestattet und über die Details eisern geschwiegen wird. Nur soviel ist klar: Taranis ist eine Kampfdrohne der neuesten Generation, die auch für offensive Operationen über feindlichem Territorium konzipiert ist. Dass der Kampfflugroboter dabei ferngesteuert wird, versteht sich noch von selbst, alles andere wäre wohl auch ein Grund wirklich paranoid zu werden.

http://de.engadget.com/2010/07/13/britisches-verteidigungsministerium-stellt-kampfjetdrohne-tarani/

Named Taranis, after the Celtic god of thunder, the £142.5 million prototype has been dubbed the ”pinnacle” of British engineering and aeronautical design. It is the size of a light aircraft and has been equipped with advanced stealth technology making it virtually undetectable.
video online

Pay & Sit Park Bench Designer Deserves a Spike to the Butt or Four

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pay bench
Behold, invention at its most mean-spirited and miserly: a park bench that makes you pay to sit. It might sound like a good way for municipalities to raise a little revenue, but don’t we have municipal taxes for that? How much does it cost, apparently half a Euro buys you some sit time – until an audible alarm warns you that your money is about to run out.

The spikes don’t look like they would be able to skewer anyone, but they would feel uncomfortable enough that you don’t want to stay there without paying.
http://www.uberreview.com/2010/07/pay-sit-park-bench-designer-deserves-a-spike-to-the-butt-or-four.htm

Surveillance, Performance and New Media Art

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Vol 7, No 2 (2010)
Surveillance, Performance and New Media Art

The relationship between the visual arts and surveillance has been explored through large scale exhibitions (CTRL:Space, ZKM), and texts such as Loving Big Brother (McGrath, 2004) have introduced questions of performance and performativity into the surveillance debate. However, as the technological possibilities available to artists grow, and the social impact of surveillance is increasingly recognized, there is a need for a thorough examination of the uses of surveillance in the visual arts, particularly in the genres of new media and performance art, where issues regarding technological engagement and embodiment come to the fore. This special issue of Surveillance & Society presents papers and works that examine the complexities of surveillance in new media and performance art.

http://surveillance-and-society.org/ojs/index.php/journal/issue/view/Performance/showToc

From The NY Times: In Bid to Sway Sales, Cameras Track Shoppers

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Paco Underhill is the founder of Envirosell, a trailblazer in observational research.

Because of sensitivities surrounding privacy, some retailers are reluctant to discuss surveillance technology. And exactly how many cameras are tracking shoppers is not known, partly because cameras are installed and uninstalled during various studies. (The videotape is for internal use only).

But industry professionals said interest in analyzing shoppers was growing. Video analysis companies said nearly every major chain was or had been a client, including giants like Wal-Mart Stores and Best Buy Company Incorporated”.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/business/20surveillance.html

Could be truthful: Moscow cameras streamed false pictures

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Police have learned that CCTV cameras all across Moscow streamed prerecorded pictures, while the company servicing them received more than a million dollars in payments.
The company, StroyMontageService, has been accused of security fraud. Police have detained its director, Dmitry Kudryavtsev, who denies all charges saying the scandal is an attempt by his rivals to squeeze him out of the market.
The alleged fraud was uncovered during a routine check of Moscow CCTV cameras.
“From May to September 2009 CCTV cameras in several districts of Moscow streamed pre-recorded pictures instead of real-time video,” police spokeswoman Olga Dumalkina stated on Tuesday.

http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-01-13/cctv-cameras-fraud-moscow.html

Eva Kot'átková: House Arrest

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exhibition: december 9, 2009 – 7.00 pm

CONDUITS
Viale Stelvio, 66
20159 Milan IT
+39 02 6883470

info [at] theconduits [dot] com
www.theconduits.com

conduits_21.jpg

In House Arrest I wanted to create an atmosphere of punishment — of a compulsory, forced stay or detention in a certain place under specific conditions. It is initiated by a person in a higher position, usually as a result of the prisoner’s misconduct or insufficiently fulfilled tasks or duties. This often happens in relationships between parents and their children, or teachers and their pupils. The situation that interests me has a much broader meaning, even though it is squeezed between four walls, floor and ceiling, and is often isolated from the outer world (which is also one of the conditions of house arrest). In my work, I deal with aspects of my nearby surroundings; my intention is to uncover specific rules, schemes and behavioral patterns, and to try (often unsuccessfully) to find my own position within them.

Coco Fusco at MC

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http://www.afterall.org/online/coco.fusco.at.mc

cocofusco.jpg

Coco Fusco’s recent exhibit at MC, Los Angeles (2006) included the photographic series Bare Life Study #1, a fictional military interrogation training manual for women, an enigmatic presentation of real manuals on a desk, and in an adjoining room, the 59-minute video Operation Atropos. The show explored the weaponization of female sexuality by the US military that was exposed by the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisoner abuse scandals.

read more!