A key to the world’s data?! Apparently the idea is to show that the program can splice the ‘full take’ of the captured networks into its relevant components. Like a glass prism splits white light into rainbow colors. Here’s an interpretation from the Guardian.
Q: Is it possible to put security in place to protect against state surveillance?
A: “You are not even aware of what is possible. The extent of their capabilities is horrifying. We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place.”
He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them.
Though that may sound like paranoia to some, Snowden has good reason for such fears. He worked in the US intelligence world for almost a decade. He knows that the biggest and most secretive surveillance organisation in America, the NSA, along with the most powerful government on the planet, is looking for him.
…, and as a result, “I got hardened.”
A basic tool for free speech: learn how to use email encryption. Mac and Windows versions are here; the mothership is for Linux. It couldn’t be easier, the end-user versions come with great instructions.
Send me something good! Here’s my public key for sievers [at] khm [dot] de (actually those tools above will find it for you automatically).
http://khm.de/~sievers/D457B050.asc
P.S. the iphone screenshot shows you it has no means to decrypt the message, which is probably just as well
We looked at her work extensively today in seminar, but to recap and for further looking and reading, here’s a list of online materials. (Don’t forget there are quite a few catalogues in the KHM library; we also have a rare 1992 interview on VHS.)
The show at the Ludwig opens this Saturday. Also, on Friday 21. June, 2013, at 19h, there is a we’ll see the Europe-premiere of her new performance : “Men on the Line” (Museum Ludwig cinema.) Recommended!
2001 Little Frank and His Carp (Video, 6 minutes, on ubu.com)
2003 “Official Welcome (Hamburger Kunstverein)” (Video, 30 minutes, on ubu.com)
In part I this interview she talks about this piece and about the part where she strips naked. Quote:
“It is my body, in this underwear. And then I take the underwear off and I’m nude; I joke that, yes, I finally joined the grand old tradition of nudie performance art. And my other joke is that I’m not really nude because I’m in quotation marks. But, of course, I am.
Part of the reason I decided to do that was precisely to close that gap, to collapse the distance between myself as the artist named Andrea Fraser and these other positions that I was performing. And to make that distancing more difficult and problematic.”
In the 2nd part of the interview she talks about later works and writings, including “Men on the Line”, later to be shown here in Cologne (you can download the interview as a podcast here):
2011 Texte zur Kunst, “Speaking of the Social World” / “Über die soziale Welt sprechen” (German translation)
The Whitney website holds her contribution to the 2012 Whitney Biennial: “L’1% C’est Moi” & “There’s No Place Like Home”
“let’s look at the world a little differently”
We had some fun at my ‘Raumkontrolle’ block seminar, trying out our Netavis Observer ‘face recognition’ software on various anti-Anti-Facial Recognition strategies. Seems they all used the same (Open-CV?) algorithm, and while I’m sure these strategies work against that, our (not very reliable) software looked right through the make-up and noise-glasses.
First test: CV Dazzle project. The artist says the make-up and hairdo effectively stops software from recognizing faces. Let’s see… we pointed our IP-cam at a computer screen, the easiest way to get images from one system into another.
Same here.
Next test: Isao Echizen’s modified sun glasses:
The project is called “Privacy Protection Techniques Using Differences in Human and Device Sensitivity”. If I understand it correctly, infra-red light (invisible to the human eye) in the eye-to-nose bridge region in the face is meant to irritate face recognition algorithms.
Again, we pointed our IP-cam at a computer screen.
The brilliant book “Security Engineering” now available free online. Just bought this used for 50 Euros, so this is a real treat. Anyone interested in how computer security works should read this. It’s also in our library.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html
Workshop für interessierte Studierende & Teilnehmer des Surveillant Architectures Seminars
23. & 24. 1. 2013, 10-18h
room 2, Filzengraben 2a
Im ersten Teil des Workshops lernen wir, wie man Unzulänglichkeiten und kleine Fehler in Schlössern ausnutzt, um diese gewaltfrei zu öffnen. Das “Türöffnen ohne Schlüssel” wird international als Sport betrieben. Der deutsche Meister von 2009 in der Disziplin Blitzöffnung, Michael Hünseler, gibt eine theoretische und praktische Einführung.
Im zweiten Teil beschäftigen wir uns mit den eingebauten Fehlern und Merkwürdigkeiten der von uns benutzten (meist elektronischen) Werkzeuge. Diese sollen kreativ neu interpretiert und gegen den vom Hersteller gedachten Zweck benutzt werden. Wir räumen den Geräteschrank des Surveillant Architectures Seminars aus, bringen alles zum Laufen, und bauen uns aus eigentlich nicht zusammen gehörenden Teilen neue vollautomatische Beobachtungs-Maschinen und live-Video Geräte.
Selten genutzte und oft gebrauchte Werkzeuge,
brandneue genauso wie veraltete Kameras,
schicke neue Formate und überholte, träge Protokolle,
Mac, PC, Linux, Smart- und not-so-smart Phones,
Sensoren und Trigger, Bewegungsmelder und Gesichtserkennung:
Aus allen diesen Gerätschaften sollen neue, bisher nicht bekannte Maschinen zusammengestöpselt werden – die uns vielleicht einmal später die Kunstarbeit abnehmen.
Bringt mit, was Ihr anschliessen wollt, wir finden einen Nutzen!
Aus organisatorischen Gründen ist die Teilnehmerzahl auf 10 begrenzt. Anmeldungen bitte an Christian sievers [at] khm [dot] de.
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Wer sich einlesen möchte:
Literatur zum Lock Picking: http://www.ssdev.org/lockpicking/MIT_D/
Security Engineering, der Klassiker: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html (auch im Semesterapparat)
