On April 30th, I attended Free Skool Santa Cruz's Surveillance Camera Walking Tour. After meeting at the Clocktower, we walked up Mission Street to get a bird's eye view of the downtown. Our class started off with about a dozen people, including professor Winston Smith. In addition to pointing out cameras, our lesson for the day was to discuss various types of surveillance and the effects it has on individuals and society. We will also take a peek into the loss of public space and personal privacy on Pacific Avenue.
Here's the class description as published on the SC-IMC calendar.
Free Skool Santa Cruz presents:
Surveillance Camera Walking Tour Clocktower downtown
with Winston Smith
A Sunday stroll around the downtown grid identifying contemporary methods of surveillance. We will derivé, or drift, through the evermore controlled terrain of public space with the intention of understanding camera placements and capabilities, as well as the behaviors conditioned by the idiom 'you are being watched.'
Sun Apr 30, Sun May 7 1pm
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For information on Free Skool Santa Cruz, check:
http://santacruz.freeskool.org
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Only someone completely distrustful of all government
would be opposed to what we are doing with surveillance cameras.
-- NYC Police Commissioner Howard Safir, 27 July 1999.
the Surveillance Camera Players:
completely distrustful of all government.
New York Surveillance Camera Players
http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html
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For more information on Surveillance, I highly suggest reading:
- The Soft Cage: Surveillance In America - From Slave Passes To The War On Terror
- Big Brother is watching you 24/7
Here's some audio, and a rough transcript, focused on prisons and capitalism:
Christian Parenti: Lockdown America in 22 Minutes
http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/cparenti.mp3
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