stanza artwork using surveillance technologies. stanza, an artwork about the surveillance of public domain space , Surveilance artwork, surveillance performance, FACT, control space, public ,domain

Title. Public Domain. Made in 2005

Public Domain is an public artwork using surveillance technologies which have been given away by Stanza to members of the public. The project creates a tension around issues of privacy and ownership of information by placing the real time surveillance feeds online and sharing them with everybody as a open spectacle.

The images are grabbed, placed online and mixed in a unique and custom built software surveillance suite creating a randomised narrative of the city landscape and its population.

This first version used ten cameras in Nottingham in 2005.

stanza, an artwork about the surveillance of public domain space , Surveilance artwork, surveillance performance, FACT, control space, public ,domain

Public Domain by Stanza is an artwork using live CCTV cameras given away to members of the public. The project places real time CCTV feeds online, creating a randomised narrative of the city landscape and its population. The images are grabbed and placed online and mixed in a unique and custom built software surveillance suite.This first version used ten cameras in Nottingham in 2005. stanza, an artwork about the surveillance of public domain space , Surveilance artwork, surveillance performance, FACT, control space, public ,domain stanza, an artwork about the surveillance of public domain space , Surveilance artwork, surveillance performance, FACT, control space, public ,domain

Stanza artwork about privacy


Public Domain

This artwork is an experimental approach to ownership in information in networks. Instead of the linear tree like system with the one central viewer, all the cameras and views (resulting data) are given away and all the views can be seen online by all. The data is mixed into an online collage, using specialy created software viewable by all. This output from the cameras can be seen online. when the cameras are working. The artwork can also be shown at galleries or on large urban screens outdoors. The result is a morphing real time view of urban or rural space ( it depends what the cameras are pointing at). This view, this reality unfolds in real time. This output is a real time experience which is not recorded, it is not a film and it is never the same again.

I set up a network of cameras in the city of Nottingham to makethis artwork re-contextualizing these images and the process in real time. The result was a visual representation of from Nottingham. Version one went live in 2005.

Objectives

I bought ten CCTV cameras, set them up, and distributed the cameras to the public so that the public controlled what they are pointing at. The public becomes the actors and filmmakers in this piece and the narrative is created by the online users and what they choose to watch.

The artwork engages the public within a new media/ digital artwork as part of the creative process.

The artwork incorporates the public into the work as 'actors' with the gathering of assets and images.

The artwork has an online area, a web site that allows these gathered assets to be viewed online as an artwork.

This artwork explores the creative uses of surveillance and networked information.

Audience

The target audience for this online artwork is global. Within the online environment the capacity to engage with this art is vast. This art work was also placed online.

Placement

An advert was placed in the local paperwhich required each user to be a willing participant in a collaborative art project. Each participant needed to have a broadband internet connection. They were then given a wireless CCTV camera for the duration of the project. The public are collaborating with the artist and are integrated into the process.


stanza, an artwork about the surveillance of public domain space , Surveilance artwork, surveillance performance, FACT, control space, public ,domain

Above artwork from Public Domain. Live CCTV artwork by Stanza. 2005. 120cm - 90cm

Public Domain Advert

Extract from the advert place in press. Volunteers are required to participate in an arts project led by artist Stanza. Volunteers will be given a camera that can be connected wirelessly or via ethernet. The camera will be connected to the users broadband connection, so you must have a broadband connection. The cameras will send images out to the internet and the final images will be reprocessed and integrated to make a real time evolving artwork called Public Domain.

Technical needs to participate.

Each participant is required to have a broadband internet connection and be willing to have a camera installed and connected to their modem or router and pointing at something continuously. Possible images might be what is out of the window, or the family living room, or down a corridor. The project will be ongoing. The camera will broadcast the results to the internet where the results will be turned into an artwork.

THERE ARE NO FEES INVOLVED NOR ARE THERE ANY COSTS. EACH PARTCIPANT WILL BE CREDITED IF THEY WISH.

Stanza will also oversee the technical set up.

The artwork will remain copyright the artist Stanza. Please note 24.11.2005. If you would still like to take part or help expand this network please get in touch.



Technical

The decision on the placement of the cameras and the best use of the cameras, the deployment and the possible social interaction, will be made by the audience ie who has the cameras.

SOFTWARE VERSION 1.

The online space uses a series on php scripts customized and integrated into a mysql database to gather the images (assets) from the cameras. These images are bounced to the host site and they will be arranged within normal HTML web pages. Additional modifications result in the use of a shockwave environment and more custom software to make the final artwork. As such the final piece will be viewable on any end under machine.

Exhibition

However the work is not be limited to this and can be exhibited in art galleries or integrated into larger display systems.

THE CAMERAS.

Note as of march 2007 this project will use AXIS cameras that will need to be purchased by any planned venue or leaser of this artwork.

Notes on D- Link camera which was used for the Nottingham installation.

* This D-Link 2100+ Internet Camera is a security system that allows you to watch and listen remotely.

* It connects to an Ethernet or wireless network, and to broadband Internet to provide you with high quality video and audio

* Equipped with built-in Web server, micro-phone for listening, motion detected image recording, time-saving trigger event playback, alert message and powerful software for multi-camera monitoring and management

stanza, an artwork about the surveillance of public domain space , Surveilance artwork, surveillance performance, FACT, control space, public ,domain

If anyone is interested in staging and exhibiting 'Public Domain' in their city, or environment, please contact me, as the work in now available for touring. I took the cameras down in July 2006. This represented the end of the first phase of the 'Public Domain' project. Selected screenshots captured in Nottingham over the six months the project was online are above.

Gallery of images from 2005

stanza, an artwork about the surveillance of public domain space , Surveilance artwork, surveillance performance, FACT, control space, public ,domain in Nottingham.

The aim of the first live test is to use live CCTV images from cameras in Nottingham to make an artwork about the city of Nottingham. The project created a network of cameras in the city of Nottingham to make an online artwork re-contextualizing these images and the process in real time. The result will be a visual representation of a slice of life from Nottingham.Public Domain is an artwork using live CCTV cameras given away to members of the public. The project places real time CCTV feeds online, creating a randomised narrative of the city landscape and its population. The images are grabbed and placed online and mixed in a unique and custom built software surveillance suite.This first version used ten cameras in Nottingham in 2005..

Above artwork from Public Domain. Live CCTV artwork by Stanza. 2005. 120- 90cm


Concepts

New metaphors relevant to the experience of the city.

Surveillance technology is infiltrating its way into everyday life, from the journeys we make on public transport to the keys we press at our computers. There are more CCTV cameras in the UK than in any other country in fact 25% percent of the worlds CCTV cameras are in the UK. These networks have been set up with the government or owner of the networks as all seeing observer. Bentham's panoptican has spread from the prison to the metropolis, where we are watched and observed. Unknown people pass judgment on us in vast digital networks

"Since we are moving towards the mother of big brother", the question is who controls the State?

Various types of data can be re-imagined within the context of city space and the environment. The patterns we make, the forces we weave, are all being networked into retrievable data structures that can be re-imagined and sourced for information. These patterns all disclose new ways of seeing the world. The value of information will be a new currency. The central issue that will develop will be the privilege and access to these data sources.
The city also has millions of CCTV. In essence the city is the biggest TV station in existence. Millions of hours worth of data are recorded every day by these cameras on city TV. One can take the sounds and images off live web streams and re-represent them thus creating new interpretations of the city in the process. The increase of technology infrastructure in the daily existence of a city means that technology will, more than ever be everywhere in our environment. Mobile data mining will be part of the fabric of the landscape. We will be carrying this data in pods, phones and IDS cards. Everything is or will be tracked. CCTV, car sensors, tracking inside our phones and id card movement tracking in the guise of anti- terror activity. The patterns we make, the forces we weave, are all being networked into retrievable data structures that can be re-imagined and sourced for information. These patterns all disclose new ways of seeing the world. The value of information will be a new currency as power change. The central issue that will develop will be the privilege and access to these data sources.

Stanza artwork about privacy

The City Experience

The city experience is a web of connected networks and multi layered threaded paths that condition us to the emotional state of the city space. In essence, the city fabric is a giant multi user multi data sphere. To take part you really have to put something back in, that's like life. In this case, to take part you have to input data so others 'may' see the output of the data response. The city has a history of stories relative to time and place, stories from the street. Love stories personal and extreme, crime stories, stories that are small or that can affect global parameters. All of these spheres can be represented by media and therefore by data within the digital realm and becomes a data source so powerful so interwoven that its scale can only be imagined as metaphor. The size and scope of such an archive, of such rich mediated data experience would support many projects. As such it can be interpreted as history via one sort of interface or as a game via another sort of interface. A possible objective is to 'mediate' data into an artwork. With this perspective there are many unimagined threads of data and connections that describe our world that can be explored within which we can create artistic interpretations.

CCTV systems are everywhere in the public domain. We are all actors, bit part actors, in a giant movie called life. Except we cannot watch, it is not on public display and the results are monitored, filtered and distributed without our permission. The city also has millions of CCTV. In essence the city is the biggest TV station in existence. Millions of hours worth of data are recorded every day by these cameras on city TV. One can take the sounds and images off live web streams and re-represent them thus creating new interpretations of the city in the process. Using data from CCTV, you can bring the outside inside. Selected feeds are collected from around the world in real time. These real time images are fed into a software system where a series of specialized channels rework these images. The channels are always on, and always changing, a constant view of the world changing and evolving around the clock. This uses specially created software and technology to randomly engage the cameras.

The increase of technology infrastructure in the daily existence of a city means that technology will, more than ever be everywhere in our environment. Everything is or will be tracked. CCTV, car sensors, tracking inside our phones and id card movement tracking in the guise of anti- terror activity. The patterns we make, the forces we weave, are all being networked into retrievable data structures that can be re-imagined and sourced for information. These patterns all disclose new ways of seeing the world. The value of information will be a new currency as power change. The central issue that will develop will be the privilege and access to these data sources.

 

Artwork images and text © stanza. 2005


Credits

Commissioned by NOW for the NOW festival 2005, financially supported by Nottingham City Council and Arts Council England.

Thanks also to the Watershed Media Center. Many thanks to Oliver Humpage, who has spent ages messing around with these cameras and has provided valuable technical help and support.

Thanks to all those who responded to my emails and phone for help on this project. It was an interesting experience for me to try to find a 'public' that would help.

Below are some of the names of people who wish to be credited in this process, thanks for allowing the cameras to be set up in your space for this experimental artwork.

Thanks to :- Paul Simones....Oliver Wood....www.cascianievans.com...Miles at Trampoline Radiator......http://radiator-festival.org/newradiator/...Lee Hughes.....www.asbocentre.org.uk....Greg Dawson ......www.net-worked.co.uk....Jeannie Finley ....www.ruby-online.co.uk...Matt Active Ingredient.....www.i-am-ai.net/home.html...Rachel dance 4.....www.dance4.co.uk

 

Above artwork from Public Domain. Live CCTV artwork by Stanza. 2005. 120- 90cm


 

Above image screenshot from Public Domain. Live CCTV artwork by Stanza. 2005.Public Domain is an artwork using live CCTV cameras given away to members of the public. The project places real time CCTV feeds online, creating a randomised narrative of the city landscape and its population. The images are grabbed and placed online and mixed in a unique and custom built software surveillance suite.This first version used ten cameras in Nottingham in 2005..

Funding For Public Domain