Surveillance in Urban Nightscapes

Today’s Plan- introduction: surveillance in society- classical / old surveillance > CCTV- some (French) theory- new surveillance > participation and social media- current: merging of old and new surveillance- future: big data, protocol, algorithms & predictive policing

introduction:surveillance in society

old surveillance > CCTV in the city

CCTV > Closed-circuit television

- a set of cameras- a control room- an operator- a protocol

but why are they there?

surveillance tech

recap:

> in-and exclusion via surveillance> besides humans, also things shape surveillance

> surveillance as part of the nightscape> urban landscapes at night: nightscapes

> safety: but for whom? (walled gardens)

some (French) theory

sur-veillance: literally to look/ watch from above

> in 1960: analysis of society based on institutions> as a citizen, you are part of these institutions: school, work, home, hospital

> each of these institutions had a disciplining character, according to Foucault

> by codes of conduct and rules of behavior in these institutions, citizens would internalize this disciplining

> visual metaphor: Bentham’s Panopticon

Analysis of Technology in Society, Class 8 34

> Deleuze & Guattari (1980’s) stated that society is no longer based on, or built up out of these institutions

> rather, in their publication “mille plateaux” (a thousand plateaus) , they state it is no longer about the individual citizen, but about different representations of the object ‘citizen’ via data

> as a result of a mix of bureaucratic infrastructure and capitalistic turn, data about citizens, sitting in all kinds, types and forms of databases, becomes the driving force of society.

>Not the individual, but the dividual (the divided individual) is the basic unit of society

>Via control of the database, you control the dividual (thus the individual)

>So, rather than a discipline society, we live in a control society (according to Deleuze & Guattari)

>We could say that Deleuze needed the Internet for proving his point (datadoubles etc)

new surveillance:participation & social media

watching and being watched > from top-down (literally - CCTV) to bottom-up

sharing of data (location, images, text): not only free labour for commerce, also for government

merging of digital with physical - of old with new surveillance

one of these in-between tools in the body camera. this device should internalise good behavior and discipline nightlife visitors

not a watch

not a touchscreen

not a microphone

responsibilities and choices in body camera interface

the solution

- a tool that has a preventive function and helps to decrease this violence

- once equipped with such a camera, and known to the public, violence will diminish (internalization of control)

do nightscape visitors with their mobile phones see themselves as survivors or surveilled?

responses to being filmed

responses to sharing

responses to ownership

old infrastructures and ideas of watching and being watched are challenged by social (mobile) media and its devices

media awareness

symmetry of cameras?

social media changes power relations in public spaceit stretches surveillance over time and space (I can look up a movie the next day)youtube > voluntary cctv?

some trends: - physical/digital access points in (semi) public space (OV-chipcard, train stations, shops, schools etc- urban screens/ displays - ubiquitous mobile media- merging of government services with commercial ones

- more types of cameras- social media monitoring- trust in smart algorithms- post 9/11 thinking (better safe than sorry)- dataveillance of data-doubles- coupling of the Web with actual space (revenge of geography)

recap:- we are in between old and new surveillance- this creates strange new expectations of what it means to watch & be watched- new (media) logics of sharing, ownership > participatory surveillance

future: big data, protocol, algorithms & predictive policing

- Although databases are not new, authors like Galloway and Chun (2002) argue rather that the coming of the Internet created something else

- a post-deleuzian society is coined, where control is no longer based on control of the database, rather based on protocol (Galloway) or on openness from users (Chun)

- Protocol: via technological rules of e.g. HTML, the system does not allow for deviant behavior, simply because it does not work

>participatory- and self-surveillance (see mHealth and wearables)

>dataveillance - cheaper & more easy to watch your data double

> predictive models: take out human agent and replace by algorithm

> who is in control in these technologies? > can citizens grasp what is going on?

> is there a way to opt out?

> being off the surveillance chart/the grid- a luxury or a disadvantage

final recap: > digital layers in public space > changes notions of watching and being watched > data-veillance on voluntarily shared data >public nightlife regulations - safety and security for whom and by what means?