The art of learning

………..this page is about my research in the field of surveillance

Thats me!!

some new resaerch toppic

article i’ve wrote lately:

Virtuality, Reality and Surveillance
A journey from the ancient invention of the Panorama, to the ubiquitous Phenomenon of the all- discovering Panspectron.

„I am visualizing my World“
In the early 19th Century the intellectual romantic bourgeoisie discovered the horizon and developed its artificial counterpart, the panorama.

Current social software platforms like Flickr, Photosynth, the blogosphere, Photoblogs, video-sharing websites and the image search engine Google, storing billions of pictures, represent the Panorama of our time. A picture composed of all social stratums, tendencies, political views and interests where even private life is displayed in public.

During the last two centuries some technical options have changed, some new ones were invented and others extinguished, primarily the number of exhibits has increased (on Flickr, on the 3rd of November, 2008, three billion pictures were uploaded ). The perception of the environment remains more or less subjective, more or less individual, adapted or trendy. Since this torrent of images of all kinds, even minuscule details are mapped; photos of documentary content are showing every aspect of life, is nothing left unseen, copied and released.

This pleasure is unfortunately less private than one can imagine. Especially since 9/11/2001, we live more than ever in an age of growing suspicion; every one of us being a prime suspect of fast increasing supervision. The surveillance practices are justified universally with the prevention of terror.

If we go back 200 years in history, we have the Panorama as the reception interface of the environment, and we can find the Panopticon as the physical, contemporary tool of (political) power, disciplinary action and surveillance. It operates basically with imprisonment and observation of offenders.  Today’s reception of environment is grounded on the digital world, which has its own mighty means of supervision, the Panspectron.
The Panspectron is ubiquitous, surveillance is omnipresent, disciplinary action is now separated from observations. Not until a reason for suspicion is given, the Panspectron will start its juridical apparatus. Until this moment every digital movement on the World Wide Web will be collected, examined, evaluated, ranked and stored automatically.
When ever a person is being suspected of having committed a crime, the data is treated as indices. Every individual is a potential offender, a “pre-offender”, the summary of all personal traces in the WWW will show the digital matrix of its originator.

The modern Panorama shows no longer the environment but the mirrored interior of its participant.

# PANORAMA

Who ever thought the name Panorama describes a neat nature view from an elevated spot, is mistaken. Panorama is a made-up word, a Terminus Technicus, similar to automobile or television. The word Panorama consists of the two Greek words pan = all and hórama = vision, the new word is first mentioned in written form in the late 1780th.
In the year 1787 a Scottish painter, Robert Baker had ambitious and curious business ideas. Under the name of „la nature à coup d’oeil“ (view into nature) he had his 360° painting of a skyline view from the city of Edinburgh at night, illuminated by candlelight patented. The immersive impact was unbelievable, so was his profit.
The Panorama serves the romantic desires of its time. The German poet, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and the painter Caspar David Friedrich are popular protagonists of a society that starts to expand the perception of its environment, nature is not any longer just supplier of agricultural goods or a hostile outside world, it obtains a romantic aspect, as you can see in the landscape paintings and diaries of both artists.
The discovery of the horizon as aesthetically delightful occurs at the same time. The Latin Word horizon = restriction, means ken, which also stands for knowledge and acknowledgment.
The centuries before, in the medieval times, the majority of human population died at the same place they were born without the opportunity to experience a new horizon. In the 18th century the intellectual human being is trying to reach the horizon, they do journeys to “broaden their horizon”; they explore places like mountaintops or the sea only to make the extraordinary encounter with the phenomenon of the unrestricted view.
The Panorama owes its appearance to the discovery of the horizon.
Everyone not able or willing to travel is supposed to visit the Rotunde, the architectural structure to exhibit the Panorama. Only the onerous stairway to the platform of the Rotunde is to be dealt with, no further discomfort and danger to cope with. The Blackwoods Magazine from 1824 writes: ”What cost a couple hundred pounds and a half a year a century ago, now costs a shilling and a quarter of an hour. Throwing out of the old account the innumerable miseries of travel, the insolence of public functionaries, the roguery of innkeepers, the visitations of banditti, charged to the muzzle with sabre, pistol and scapulary, and the rascality of custom-house officers, who plunder, passport in hand, the indescribable “désagréments“ of Italian cookery, and the insufferable annoyances of abomination, an Italian bed.”
The Rotunde, an ingenious interface made from wood and stone.

“The Panorama is (…) pictorial concept, „symbolic form“ of a specific, bourgeoisie nature understanding of nature and world, (…) the Panorama appears as a machine in which the bourgeoisies point of view can be learned and simultaneously glorified, an instrument of liberation and re-incarceration of the View, the first optical mass medium in its strict sense.”

A mass medium was born. The requirements have had their effects until today, a maximal authenticity in the virtual imitation of the reality. It is Easy to interact with; there is no danger, no burden, no expected damages and no unrequested contacts. See and be seen, a passive participation in an actually active process.

#PANOPTICON

1787, at the same Time, while Goethe and Caspar David Friedrich explore the horizon, Mr. Jeremy Bentham, a theoretic leader of the Utilitarianism  has had the idea of an ideal universal surveying complex, “the Panopticon”.
At the beginning of 19th century, the humanistic parts of society were uneasy with the idea of torture and martyrdom of convicted criminals.
The usual “bloody” treatment disposed a range of methods from dividing someone into four parts, burning, eyes blinding, to cropping hands etc; so the will for a “clean” punishment occurred. With asceticism and disciplinary action, a new catalog of counter measures was established.

Like before, the main purpose of punishment was to imprison the delinquent, but not any more in a dark, morbid, “Piranesi – like” setup; no more dungeons, where prisoners can hide in a mob and plot a riot with other offenders.

Penalization by total and permanent surveillance of prisoners was the solution. The idea was to educate the prisoner to reduce criminal energy through hindsight and formation and restructure him to a functioning worker.

Bantham had a row of interesting ideas to protect the freedom of the individual.
His ideas were radical; he postulates that every citizen should be marked with a tattoo to identify him as a unique person (today we have digital fingerprints instead and a traceable RFID chips embedded in our passports) as well as a system of police informers and undercover agents, everything for the benefit of the respectable citizen.

The principle of the Panopticon is very simple; it is indeed nearly the same architectonical model as the Rotunde. In the middle of a circular structure a tower with an all- around view is provided, it holds windows, opaque for the convict. The observer has the possibility of surveying the imprisoned at any time without being seen. The ring- like structure of the prisoner’s tract is separated in similar spaces with two windows, one at the exterior and one at the interior side. The incident light illuminates all in a proper way. The observer can survey every move/motion that disturbs the daily routine the convict is supposed to persue.
“(…) But the Panopticon must not be understood as dream building; it is the diagram of a mechanism of power reduced to it’s ideal form; its functioning, abstracted from any obstacle, resistance or friction, must be represented as a pure architectural and optical system: it is in fact a figure of political technology that may be detached from any specific use. It is polyvalent in its applications; (…)”
Indeed, the Panopticon is a symbol of the political power of its time.

#TODAYS PANORAMA ON THE WORLDWIDEWWEB

Social Software and Web 2.0 applications like: Flickr, Twitter, My Space, Facebook, StudiVZ, Xing, private and public and educational and business Blogs, Wikis of all kinds (esp. Wikipedia), readers Editions, Del.icio.us, Wordpress, Writely, slide Share, netvibes, YouTube, Last fm, SecondLife, online Games (like “Americas Army”), Skype etc. (this list could be endless) can be separated in different Topics:

-    Social networking /community: business- private- student- network;
-    Shared services: Video, Photo, Tags, Social Bookmarking, Text, (Blogs);
-    Collaborative content management: Wikis, Blogs, bulletin boards;
-    Providing services: Internet telephony, instant messaging, Maps, Search engines, library archives;
-    Digital market places: Bookstores, Car sales, private sales, online shopping;

Most of these web applications invite the users to describe experiences, to discuss sentiences, to publish doubts and to comment and rate every transaction and the published experiences of others. A multitude of social web applications can be cross-linked with each other and be adjusted with the personal address book. Even distant acquaintances become “friends” and share all experiences freely.
Everything and everyone is held up to date and is frequently informed about who is online (before breakfast) or is still missing a left sock.
Things of all kinds and quality are shown; photos are displayed because they were made. Pictured persons are often labeled and tagged and re-linked, a feeling for privacy is rare.

At the beginning of the web 2.0 critical people often asked, what if the made up avatars are false and the published materials is fake? Who can guarantee for the seriousness of the material displayed? But, as time has shown, fakes are rare. Collaborative tools are used to share academic work, Wikis are filled with (collective) knowledge, and blogs are fed with opinions and discussions and bulletin boards are used to help each other. The whole scope of the human spectrum finds its stage, and what is being staged is the panorama of our time.

Through immersive editing, the possibility of making designs look personal and individual is given (there is often a lot of artwork involved, think of juvenile MySpace sites).
The invitations of the programming to spend a lot of time with designing keeps the user oblivious to the fact that one is never alone in the web, and that beyond the addressed friends in ones “peer- group” are uncounted, unadressed listeners. As a matter of fact, the produced data will be stored and used for unknown duration.

#PANSPECTRON

Today we live in the age of data retention, in so called “pre crime” – age. The popular science fiction writer and visionary, Phillip K. Dick described such a society in his short novel “Minority Report”, a society with a common law system that impedes crime before it happens.
“Instead of positioning some human bodies around a central sensor, a multiplicity of sensors is developed around all bodies: its antenna farms, spy satellites and cable traffic intercepts feed into its computers all the information that can be gathered. This is then processed through a series of “filters” or key-word watch-lists. The Panspectron does not merely select certain bodies and certain (visual) data about them. Rather, it compiles information about all the same time, using Computers to select the segments of data relevant to its surveillance tasks.”

In the age of data retention everyone is treated like a suspect, nothing will happen until it comes to a click on a “wrong” button, or a contact with an observed suspicious person or to remain in censored/forbidden parts of the WWW. Everything that matches the pattern recognition of a criminal act or not acting system conform; can be a trigger to maneuver into the focus of surveillance. It’s only a small step from “critical-to-the-system” to system hostility.
The Panopticon has abandoned its architectonical shell, similar to human behavior, it is now digital. Isn’t an optical medium anymore, it records to the minuscule interferences in the social structure; the Panspectron discerns patterns of discrepancy. Since the cold war was over, the military part of the government has developed pattern recognition algorithms further on and those Prospects are still in use. The new enemy is unknown – everybody is suspicious.

A further difference between Panspectron and Panopticon is to be defined in the 4th dimension.
Conviction, punishment and also data retention occur independently of Time or chronologically offset. The collected data can be used later if a suspicion occurs. It will be reviewed, filtered, sorted, evaluated if a case is suspicious of committing and can be converted to evidence – proof.
Pattern recognition is believed to enable predictions of future behavior.
Social Network Analysis  is an instrument to research possible dangerous contacts to terroristic or criminal groups and will also be done in the suspicion of “pre crime”.
The possibilities are infinite if one thinks a bit further and add data from Closed Circuit TV, money transactions and telephone contacts that contain data like time, place and duration.

The World Wide Web was invented from its founders as a tool of free information flow, collaborative work and free speech, as a democratic Instrument, without prejudices in age, health, sex, gender and political view. It should stay like this. Every user should reclaim his personal privacy and stop the irresistible spying. To quote Manuel deLanda:

“ When the Computer screen became the surface of contact between two machinic species, people and computers, it also became a potential trap for individuals: software hacking, as was discovered early on, is powerful addictive. Computer screens can become “ narcotic mirrors,” trapping users by feeding them amplified images of their narcissistic selves. The same interface that can allow users to control the machine, can also give them a false and intoxicating sense of their own power. For this reason visionaries like Licklider and Engelbart, Kay and Nelson, emphasized the need to use computer networks as means for creating new forms of collective intelligence, of getting humans to interact with one another in novel ways. At every step we will find a similar mixture of new roads to explore and new dangers to avoid (…). The Pandemonium is one such road. Many more will have to be invented before this small escape routes can be made into truly liberating paths.”

Pan the ancient Greek god of war,
is also Patron of the shepherds and flocks.
Eponymous of all words in this text using
as first syllable
PAN

Images:
Pan: http://z.about.com/d/ancienthistory/1/0/K/M/2/Pan.jpg (last visited on  27.07.09)

Literatur:
Chambers Encyclopedia, London, 1955
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, italienische Reise 2. Teil, J.W. Goethe Werke (Sophienausgabe), I. Abt.,Bd. 30
Oliver Grau, Virtuelle Kunst in Geschichte  und Gegenwart, Berlin 2001
Oliver Grau, Immersion und mediale Emotionen, Oliver Grau und Andreas Keil, Frankfurt, 2006
Foucault, Discipline and Punish in German: Foucault, Überwachen und Strafen, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1977,
Philip K. Dick Minority Report, Fantastic Universe magazine, 1956
Manuel de Landa, War in the Age of intelligent Machines, Swerve Editions, New York, 1991,
Srephan Oettermann, Das Panorama Die Geschichte eines Massenmediums, Syndicat, Frankfurt am Main, 1980
Hilmar Franke, Aussichten ins unermessliche, Perspektiven und Sinnoffenheit bei Caspar David Friederich, Hilmar Franke, Berlin, 2004
Geert Lovink, Dark Fibre, Auf den Spuren einer kritischen Internetkultur, bpb, Bonn, 2003
Danny Schechter, Media Wars: News at a time of Terror, DissectingMedia Coverage after 9/11, Inovatio Verlag, 2002
Steven Johnson, Interface Culture, Klett Cotta, Stuttgart 1999

Links:
http://blog.flickr.net/en/2008/11/03/3-billion/ (last seen: 27.07.09)
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/flickr.com (last seen: 27.07.09)
University of Milwaukee, Sandra Braman, The long view, http://www.uwm.edu/~braman/bramanpdfs (last seen on  27.07.09)
http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/flickr.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism

clikk on the picture to enlarge it and you can see my location, ip adresse, personal data, collected to nice immage.

I wonder what will happen if you feed this machine/software with personal data?

….how social networking extends brain and body under the aspect of datamining and sueveillance….
- a lecture i hold, 2006 on the art festival ” Invasionen in den Körper ”

sorry it’s in german

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren

Ich freue mich  sie zu meinem heutigen Vortrag Datamining  Lebensspuren im Netz begrüßen zu dürfen…

Ich fange erst mal sehr allgemein an , d.h. dass ich erst mal einen kleinen Überblick über so genannte  social software gebe.
Gemeint sind damit die Möglichkeiten des Web 2.0.
Um nur einige zu nennen:
-Frienster,
-Myspace
-You tube
-Flikr
-Photocase
-online-Groups z.B. Yahoo Groups
-die“ bloggersphere“
und so weiter

Bild 1

Vor dem Web. 2.0 also vor 2003 musste der Internet Benutzer noch etliche Kompetenzen mitbringen oder sich aneignen um an dem globalen Spiel teilnehmen zu können. Wollte er sich selbst im Netz präsentieren, musste er schon eine eigene Website vorweisen können. Um eine Homepage zu betreiben, muß man entweder über Kentnisse  in Html verfügen oder eine html-code produzierenden Softwaere benutzen können , oder wenigsten jemand kennen der sich damit auskennt.

Seit dem Web 2.0 und der social softwaere, ist das nicht mehr nötig…
Jetzt kann Jeder kann im Internet auftreten.
Alles was man braucht, ist ein Computer, eine schnelle Internetverbindung und ein bischen Zeit.

Bild 2

Fangen wir mit dem Blog an:

Ein Blog ist so etwas wie ein online Tagebuch in dem man seine Gedanken Wünsche und Träume aufschreibt und seine Freunde das kommentieren lässt.
Oft sind die Blog Einträge sehr persönlich, eigentlich nur für einige Freunde gedacht, Gedanken die man austauschen möchte.

Bild 3 + 4

Das kommentieren ist genauso einfach wie das bloggen seblst, jeder kann alles kommentieren
muß sich jedoch zuerst über seinen Namen anmelden und als „Freund“ vom Betreiber des Blogs zugelassen werden. Noch einfacher  ist es wenn der Freund selbst einen Blog beim gleichen Anbieter betreibt. Da in diesem Fall ja schon alle Daten vorliegen, denn wer einen Blog einrichten will, muss einiges über sich öffentlich  machen .
Z.B. Den Namen, die Anschrift , Geburtsdaten, Vorlieben und Hobbys.

So schnell kommt man zu einem Blog

Und so sehen viel genutzte Blogs aus:

Wer gar nicht soviel schreiben möchte  für den genügt ja auch ein online Poesiealbum in das man sein Bild einklebt etwas über seine Hobbys sagt und noch die Lieblingsmusik abspielen lässt.
Zum Beispiel ein My Space Account, der ist genauso leicht einzurichten wie ein Blog kommt aber mit weniger Text aus und ist darum bei Teenagern sehr beliebt.

Was ist my Space, bzw. was bedeutet es für die Benutzer?

Man könnte sagen  was früher die Bushaltestelle  oder die Eisdiele war, ist jetzt My Space , der moderene abhänge Platz.
Mit 100 Millionen Rumhängern ein ganz schön großer Platz.

Worauf kommt es an bei My Space?

Viele angesagte  Bands betreiben eine My Space seite , es ist unter Jugendlichen  quasi Pflicht  auf mindestens einer dieser Seite als Freund aufzutauchen.
Dabei entsteht so etwas wie eine Nähe zum Idol, sie wird auch als solche von den Teenagern empfunden , obwohl sie  „nur“ virtuell ist.
Außerdem muss man so viele Freunde wie möglich einladen um richtig cool zu sein.

Eine Wesentliche Rolle spielt natürlich auch das eingebundene Foto.
Man fragt sich ob da nicht das körperliche  auf der Strecke bleibt aber ich würde sagen es ergebensich ganz neue Wege der eigene, auch körperlichen  Warnehmung.
Achtete man früher nur darauf welche Marken an der Bushaltestelle getragen wurden ist heute wichtig wie sexy das eigen Abbild , der Auftritt bei My space ist.

Ein ganz anderer Aspekt ist der Körper den man um sich herum bildet , die Community, d.h. die „Freunde“  bzw. dieLeute die meine Seite kommentieren, besuchen, also mich und meinen Auftritt bewerten, damit dass sie gerne meine Freunde sein wollen.
Das da nicht immer die Wahrheit gesagt und gezeigt wird, ist auch nichts neues eher selbstverständlich.
Wenn man solch eine Seite  anlegt setzt man sich automatisch mit verschiedene Fragen auseinander:

-wer bin ich
-wer will ich dort sein
-was will ich ausdrücken
-woher komme ich
-wie wirke ich auf andere
-wer sind diese anderen
-was muss ich tun um akzeptiert zu werden

Ich kreiere also ein virtuelles Abbild von mir entweder digitalisiere ich mich selbst  oder ich erschaffe mich neu, besser.

Die Anderen , die Gruppe, üben eine bestimmte Macht auf mich aus, indem sie meine Seite beurteilen, auf meine Kommentare reagieren, mich akzeptieren oder ignorieren.

Natürlich will ich nur coole Freunde die ihrerseits auch nur coole Freunde wollen.

So viel zur social softwaere…

Was hat das jetzt mit datamining zu tun?

Die Gelassenheit mit der einige User ihren Account nutzen ist beispiellos.
Wer cool sein will hilft vielleicht ein bischen nach wenn er nicht ganz so cool ist und macht sich keine Gedanken darüber das auch Adressaten,  wie zukünftige Arbeitgeber, Einblick auf die Seiten haben können.

Hobbies :

Sachen in die Luft jagen
Kiffen…

In den USA ist es durchaus üblich etwas über Arbeitnehmer zu „er – googlen“
Warum nicht auch gleich mal bei open BC, My Space usw nachschauen…
Bei Flikr

Richtig Schlimm wird’s wenn das Semantic web Richtig funktioniert

Wenn man überlegt was alles jetzt schon möglich ist kann  man gar nicht mehr von Spuren im Netz reden, es sind eher schon  ein vollständige Abbilder.

collection of the pictures i used while talking:

lebensspuren