Some people are constantly playing up the down side to video surveillance. Bruce Schneier is one example, and I have commented on his blog many times about the fact that image capture is just like any other data capture — the use and abuse of surveillance depends on the operator and governance.

I guess you could call my point a “don’t blame the tool” position. However, I admit am not a fan of the “guns don’t kill people” argument. I think the saying that a tool can not be used to kill is absolutist and therefore an illogical statement. I would only agree to a statement that said guns can be used kill people. Thus, I would agree with a statement that surveillance can be used to violate people’s rights, but that does not mean all surveillance is a violation.

Right, all that being said, I really just wanted to give an example of surveillance as a form of art. There are other examples, including the time-lapse project in London (which I find boring and trite — like watching paint dry), but this one is particularly well done.

I suppose I should give a disclaimer, Peter is a former mentor of mine and I really enjoyed the work I did for him (information security for digital artists!) many years ago.

Oxford Project URLs: http://oxfordproject.com and http://welcomebooks.com/theoxfordproject/

In 1984, Peter Feldstein set out to photograph every resident of his town, Oxford, Iowa
(pop. 676). Twenty years later, he did it again. But this time those same residents did more
than pose. With extraordinary honesty, they shared their memories, fantasies, failures,
secrets and fears with writer Stephen G. Bloom. The result is a riveting collection of
personal stories and portraits that tell much more than the tale of one small Midwestern
town. Because beneath Oxford’s everyday surface, lives a complex and wondrous
community that embodies the American spirit.

History of the future will be a study of surveillance databases, and art (including poetry of course) is already derived from new forms of analysis of these repositories of data. Peter has done an amazing job as a pioneer in this field.

Aime Cesaire has passed away at the age of 94. A poet and writer from Martinique he challenged the establishment around him and is perhaps most known for his letters on anti-colonialism and black consciousness. LiP magazine has an interesting article called Poetry & The Political Imagination: Aime Cesaire, Negritude, and the Applications of Surrealism that highlights Cesair’s thinking:

First published in 1950, Discourse on Colonialism is indisputably one of the key contributions to a wave of anticolonial literature produced during the postwar period. As with much of the radical literature produced during this epoch, Discourse places the colonial question front and center. In fine Hegelian fashion, Césaire argues that colonialism works to “decivilize” the colonizer: Torture, violence, race hatred, and immorality constitute a dead weight on the so-called civilized, pulling the master class deeper and deeper into the abyss of barbarism. The instruments of colonial power rely on barbaric, brutal violence and intimidation, and the end result is the degradation of Europe itself.

Interesting perspective that brings to mind the role of the US in Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. How can the invading armies avoid an abyss of their own creation? I suspect some colonialists saw discord and violence as liabilities that prevented a healthy and stable market from evolving, and thus planned ahead, while others saw the abyss as their only real means of profit (destabilization designed to prevent a more level field of competition).

Cesaire’s work is as relevant today as ever, as people struggle with the concepts of identity and patriotism. The poem “Cahier d’un retour au pays natal” begs a question; What kind of a place can a man can stand proud and command respect? Is that place his home?

Partir.
Comme il y a des hommes-hyènes et des hommes-
panthères, je serais un homme-juif
un homme-cafre
un homme-hindou-de-Calcutta
un homme-de-Harlem-qui-ne-vote-pas

l’homme-famine, l’homme-insulte, l’homme-torture
on pouvait à n’importe quel moment le saisir le rouer
de coups, le tuer – parfaitement le tuer – sans avoir
de compte à rendre à personne sans avoir d’excuses à présenter à personne
un homme-juif
un homme-pogrom
un chiot
un mendigot

mais est-ce qu’on tue le Remords, beau comme la
face de stupeur d’une dame anglaise qui trouverait
dans sa soupière un crâne de Hottentot?

From the Satires of Juvenal, Book IV, Satire X, as posted in Wikipedia:

orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem,
qui spatium uitae extremum inter munera ponat
naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores,
nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil et potiores
Herculis aerumnas credat saeuosque labores
et uenere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli.
monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare; semita certe
tranquillae per uirtutem patet unica uitae.
(10.356-64)

I will try to translate if I can find some time. Might come in handy for the session I will be leading at RSA.