SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL


A mini-conference
Starr Auditorium, Level 2, Tate Modern, London, UK


Saturday 9 March
1400 - 1830 [ GMT ]


Tickets: UK£10 / £5.
Ph: 020 7887 8888


 http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/programmes/webcasting/surveillance.htm


ABOUT THE EVENT


Surveillance and Control is a half day conference which will consider
widespread uses of electronic surveillance. It aims to analyse how recent
social and political developments have impacted on discourses around
surveillance, and to address how various surveillance technologies have
influenced new media art practice.


We are confronted by the troubling and expanding presence of surveillance
in our daily life. Monitoring devices are used ever more to observe
physical space, while electronic space has been proven to be likewise
vulnerable to scrutiny, due to the operation of global data interception
systems. The increasing ubiquity of surveillance has radically transformed
the relation between public and private spheres, as well as the very nature
of political and technological control.


Surveillance has been a rich source of interest for artists for many years,
and in recent times monitoring and tracking technologies have formed a
major part of the arsenal of the contemporary artist. Exhibitions such as
CTRL[SPACE] at the ZKM in Germany, reveal a growing interest in artistic
surveillance tactics, drawing attention to new interpretations of the 18th
Century concept of the panopticon as an ideal mechanism of observation and
control.


Our concept of a continually observed society has moved on since Michel
Foucault seized on the panopticon as a metaphor for the oppressive use of
information in modern society. Though Foucault's observation that control no
longer requires physical domination over the body, but can be enacted
through the constant possibility of observation, still holds true, the
methods used to monitor individuals in space have changed considerably.
Surveillance and Control will not only refer to the uses of conventional
monitoring and tracking technologies, but also the operation of
'dataveillance' - the largely invisible practice of tracking and
intercepting electronic data.


The events of September 11 and their continuous re-enactment as media
spectacle, have created a new psychological environment in which these
issues can be considered. Since this time, new surveillance and
communication interception powers for law enforcement agencies and
intelligence authorities have been proposed and enacted in many countries.
The war on terror has lead to what Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbles
once described as, the 'optimum anxiety level' which is needed to mobilise
a larger audience for a certain common cause - in this case the
rehabilitation of the authoritarian state and the expansion of the military
and policing.In this context, it becomes more problematic to speak about
privacy and threats to freedom of information.Surveillance and Control will
ask if there is a possibility to counter this meticulously maintained
public anxiety, and re-engage a more balanced dialogue about the limits of
freedom versus the limits of systems of surveillance and control.


This half day conference features artists Marko Peljhan (Slovenia), Kate
Rich (Australia / UK) and Julia Scher (USA), investigative journalist,
Duncan Campbell (UK), media theorist, Eric Kluitenberg (Netherlands), and
Konrad Becker from Public Netbase (Austria).The event will also feature an
info-booth by World-Information.org.




PROGRAMME


14:00 - 14:05 - Welcome and introduction
Honor Harger: Webcasting Curator, Tate Modern



14:05 - 14:10 - Chair's Introduction
Eric Kluitenberg: media theorist, the Netherlands



14:10 - 14:45 - Duncan Campbell
Duncan Campbell's presentation will outline the scale and functioning of
global electronic surveillance systems.In a slide lecture, he will show the
real world visual iconography of surveillance, giving a graphic picture of
the way in which surveillance is deployed.He will also address how the
politics of privacy have undergone a major shift, since September 11.In a
psychological environment where it has become difficult to argue for the
protection of the personal sphere, intellectual and philosophical debate
about the use of surveillance and the role of privacy, is in
decline.Campbell will address the impact of the paucity of rigorous
discourse and analysis of this area.



14:45 - 15:20 - Kate Rich
Kate Rich is part of the Bureau of Inverse Technology (BIT), an information
agency which develops data, tracking and visualisation devices for critical
deployment.BIT's projects often comment on the use of monitoring and
data-tracking systems employed by large corporations and bureaucracies.
Rich's presentation will outline projects such as Suicide Box, a vertical
motion video recorder mounted below the Golden Gate bridge, and BIT Plane a
miniature spy plane deployed over the aerial space of Silicon Valley.Rich
will also refer to recent projects such as BANGBANG, a network of webcams
which automatically sense gunfire or related explosions, and BIT Radio, an
event-activated FM radio transmitter which can interrupt normal broadcast
services with important information.



15:20 - 16:00 - Panel discussion, with audience intervention
With Kate Rich and Duncan Campbell
Chair: Eric Kluitenberg



16:00 - 16:30 - Break
Tea and coffee



16:30 - 17:05 - Julia Scher
Julia Scher's work attempts to unmask and deconstruct surveillance
technology.She employs standard surveillance tools in site-specific
installations and online projects, which expose the mechanisms of
technological domination and examine our complicity with them.Her
presentation will refer to works such as Security Sites Visit, where
visitors were lead on tours of company's security systems, and Predictive
Engineering, a web project which analyses the ubiquity of surveillance and
the manner in which power is asserted in the spaces we inhabit.Scher will
also speculate on the changing face of surveillance, considering invisible
forms of scrutiny and the role of privacy.



17:05 - 17:40 - Marko Peljhan
Marko Peljhan's projects put the tools of control in the hands of the
scrutinised. Utilising the techniques and technology of military and
corporate surveillance, Peljhan constructs pragmatic and utilitarian
mechanisms, which enable the gaze to be turned back on the observers
themselves. In this presentation, Peljhan will refer to projects such as
Insular Technologies, which aims to establish an independent high frequency
radio communication network, and Makrolab, an autonomous communications,
research and living unit.His presentation will also address the
technologies of remote sensing, and signals intelligence, referring to the
use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for surveillance purposes.



17:40 - 18:30 - Panel discussion, with audience intervention
With Julia Scher, Marko Peljhan and Konrad Becker.
Chair: Eric Kluitenberg



ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS


- Julia Scher, USA
Julia Scher is an artist, who's work focuses on the subjects surveillance
and cyber-sphere. Aiming at the exposure of dangers and ideologies of
monitoring systems, Scher creates temporary and transitory
web/installation/performance works that explore issues of power, control
and seduction. Scher is a founding member of The Thing, a net.community
based in New York.She has lectured at Harvard University, Princeton
University and Rutgers University, and is presently engaged with the
department of architecture at MIT in Boston, USA.
Online data:  http://architecture.mit.edu/people/bg/cvscher.html


- Marko Peljhan, Slovenia
Marko Peljhan is a media artist and founder of the organisation, Projekt
Atol, which runs Makrolab, an autonomous communications, research and
living unit, and many other projects.Makrolab has been shown at documentaX
in Kassel in 1997, on Rottnest Island-Wadjemup, Australia in 2000, and will
be installed at Blair Atholl estate in the Scotish Highlands in the summer
of 2002 and presented at the Tramway in Glasgow in August .


Online data:  http://makrolab.ljudmila.org/


- Kate Rich, UK / Australia
Kate Rich is a video engineer for Bureau of Inverse Technology (BIT). BIT
develops data, tracking and visualisation devices for critical deployment.
Projects she has worked on with BIT include, the SUICIDE BOX, the BIT
PLANE, and the BANGBANG camera network.
Online data:  http://bureauit.org


- Duncan Campbell, UK
Scottish born Duncan Campbell is an investigative journalist, author,
consultant and television producer specialising in privacy, civil liberties
and secrecy issues. His best-known investigations have led to major legal
clashes with successive British governments. In 1988, he revealed the
existence of the ECHELON project, which has since 1997 become controversial
throughout the world and especially in Europe.
Online data:  http://www.gn.apc.org/duncan


- Eric Kluitenberg, Netherlands
Eric Kluitenberg is a writer, theorist and organiser of culture and
technology events. He lives in Amsterdam and currently works for De Balie,
Centre for Culture and Politics, where in 2001 he organised The Society of
Control - a event showcasing artists' use of electronic observation
technologies.
Online data: De Balie:  http://www.balie.nl


- Konrad Becker, Austria
Konrad Becker is the director of Public Netbase, an organisation based in
Vienna, Austria, that explores the relationship between culture and
technology, art and society, science and politics.One of their key projects
over the past two years has been World-information.org, a "cultural
intelligence agency", which maps out the cultural, social, economic and
technological aspects of a global information society.The next series of
World-information.org events will take place in Amsterdam at the end of
2002. A mini World-Information.org info-booth will be on display in the
lobby area, outside the Starr Auditorium during Surveillance and Control.
Online data: De Balie:  http://world-information.org



GETTING TICKETS


There are still tickets available to attend the event.
Tickets cost UK£10 (or UK£5 for concessions).
Tickets can be obtained from:
Tate Ticketing:
Ph: 020 7887 8888 (choose option 1, then option 2 in the automated menu)
Email:  tate.ticketing@tate.org.uk



ABOUT THE WEBCAST


This event will be presented live on the Tate website, as part of Tate's
Webcasting Programme. You can experience the event live online in audio and
video using the Real Player.


To find out more, visit:
. If you haven't
experienced Tate Modern's webcasts before, please visit our technical help
page: .
The international times of the webcast are:


9 March
1400 - 1830 [ GMT ]
1500 - 1930 [ Central European Time ]
0900 - 1330 [ US Eastern Standard Time ]
1930 - 0000 [ Indian / Calcutta Time ]


10 March
0100 - 0530 [ Australian Eastern Summer Time ]
0300 - 0730 [ New Zealand Summer Time ]


If your timezone doesn't appear here, visit:




MORE INFORMATION


For more on this event, see:
 http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/programmes/webcasting/surveillance.htm
or contact:
Honor Harger, Webcasting Curator, Interpretation & Education, Tate Modern
Email:  honor.harger@tate.org.uk
PH: (44) 020 7401 5066


For more information about Tate or getting tickets for the event:
Tate Box Office
Email:  tate.ticketing@tate.org.uk
PH: (44) 020 7887 8888
URL:  http://www.tate.org.uk