Ulrich Peltzer’s Part of the Solution begins with a protest against CCTV in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, which the protesters are dressed up as clowns and ballerinas and critique the experienced privacy
infringement by holding up signs and hand out maps that locate the surveillance cameras in the adjacent Sony Center. The whole introductory scene has striking similarities to a circus staging and resembles counter-surveillance protests in the U.S. In the article “Counter-surveillance as Political Intervention,” Tori Manahan asks “What happens when the cameras are turned back on those monitoring us?” and analyzes such practices of counter-surveillance/in urban areas. For Manahan “Counter-surveillance can include […] mapping paths of least surveillance and disseminating that information over the Internet […] or staging public plays to draw attention to the prevalence of surveillance in society.” (Monahan, Tori. “Counter-surveillance as Political Intervention?” Social Semiotics 16.4 (2006), 515-534.) Similar to Ulrich Peltzer’s Part of the Solution, which draws attention to the public acceptance and potential repercussions of CCTV, I want you to engage with your immediate campus environment. Where do we find CCTV and when is it used to improve our safety? Are there spaces on campus that are less safe due to missing CCTV? In this surveillance project, you will map paths of least and most surveillance. Map all security cameras on campus. On your daily routines and ways. How watched are you? When is it intrusive? When is it making you feel safe? How does gender, ethnicity, nationality play a role in the assessment of CCTV?
Documentation:
For one week (7 days) you will create a data diary and track CCTV in your surroundings. How is the space on campus monitored and surveilled? When is such monitoring appreciated and when is it not? Does gender play a role in how we perceive the CCTV of public spaces? Each day focus on a space on campus or in the surrounding areas that are monitored/unmonitored. In which ways does it affect your everyday life. Once more ask who is in the focus of the monitoring? What is the goal of CCTV in the selected space? Security? Crime prevention? Tourist attraction? For the final project, please submit your digital data diary and write a 3-page reflection upon your experiment. The reflection needs to be written in the form of a short research paper. In an introductory paragraph describing the parameters of your experiment. Why did you select a specific monitored space? How often do you pass that area and during which times?Research an app that can help you to map CCTV. For example, use Google my maps to locate the described public places and demonstrate where you see CCTV. Each day write a short paragraph about your (in)visibility experiment and how it grapples with the themes depicted in this course. How does your understanding of yourself shift during the experiment?
Reflection (3 pages):
• Frame your 3-page paper theoretically and define what video and closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems are. Then tackle the following questions: What are is monitored and why? What is the goal of CCTV in each different space? Why are some areas monitored and other are not? What (self-)knowledge through experimenting with (In)Visibility do you want to gain? When does data turn into valuable information for you?
• Critically analyze the mapping tool that you used to support your surveillance project. Write
a review. Did your perception of the space change after you located CCTV or missing
monitoring? What were the benefits, repercussions, and limits of CCTV in public spaces?
• Stay in contact with your group members. What are the similar outcomes of your surveillance
project? In which ways are your results different? Include a final paragraph in which you
analyze your group findings.