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March 08, 2008

Spring Break Surveillance

I spent the break in Scotland visiting a friend that goes to University in St. Andrew's and was fascinated by the prevalence of surveillance cameras and signs about their presence I found there. Every private residence just about was displaying some sign of being a client of a private security firm. Every store, restaurant and pub displayed some sort of notice that 24/7 surveillance was in place in the establishment. In order to fairly assess congestion taxes, cameras photograph license plates entering into London, and send a bill to the registered owner for the tax.

Despite the feeling that I was photographed more by the UK government than I was by my traveling companions, it was certainly an experience to see th prevalence of the surveillance technology, and the extent to which the residents had accepted its presence in their lives. Crime is in fact lower in the UK, so the constant surveillance might in fact be an effective deterrent. Personally, I'm interested to see if the atmosphere that we create in our performance can replicate this feeling of pervasive, ubiquitous surveillance, and whether or not our audience will accept its presence with the same nonchalance I saw in the UK.

Posted by kralko at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)