@klidbury2018 Mackenzie’s incredible work exploring private and surveilled spaces. Concept Statement:
A binary can be defined as a pair of terms holding meanings that oppose each other. However, when looking at how certain binaries have changed over time, and at factors that continue to blur the line between them, a complexity supersedes this simple definition. The public/private binary was one of great interest to me, as in a contemporary society that values and expects constant technological innovations, we have just recently started to realise how this could be affecting our private lives. The Internet, Social media, iPhones, Laptops, Smart TV’s, Google Homes and an immeasurable amount of other devices are used by individuals and installed in their homes. Any device is subject to being hacked, whether that be through the camera, the microphone, or most commonly, through accessing private details and information. This creates a problem, because as long as there is a device being used by the individual or is in the room, we are merely creating an illusion of privacy when we are in our personal and secluded spaces.
If we look at 18th Century Europe, in the wake of the “Coffeehouses”, the separation between an individual’s public and private spheres was very much evident. The public sphere was reserved for free discussion and debate regarding markets, politics, law and trade. On the other hand, the private sphere was reserved for family and home life, where one could be untainted from the influence of government and social institutions, allowing people to remain private and separate from public life. If we fast forward to our current society, this distinction is no longer so clear. Recent events such as Facebook’s failure to keep it’s users’ information secure, hackers accessing cameras on personal devices and iPhones and Google Homes listening to conversations, really accentuate how much the line between public and private has shifted, as the public sphere has become the more dominant of the pair. Even if we own these devices, anonymous third parties could still be able to watch and hear our behaviour, despite us being out of sight of public surveillance, and confined within our own homes.
My video ‘Lens’ attempts to explore the public/private binary by focusing on methods of surveillance, both through traditional security surveillance and a more ambiguous means, through personal devices. The video is not dramatic nor exciting, as it follows the mundane, everyday behaviour that is typical for a teenage boy (my brother), instead, I wanted to create an unsettling tone to the video as it makes the audience question whether they too could be being recorded and watched by an anonymous person, and to spur them into thinking how they’d feel if this breach of their privacy were to occur. I didn’t want to convey the idea that a violation of privacy is only significant if you had something to hide, but rather wanted to encompass the notion that people could be watching and listening to your behaviour without your permission which, in its entirety, is the result of the skewed public/private binary in our society. Usually property security cameras do not have audio input, therefore, in my experimentation I recorded the sounds the iPhone captured whilst being held in the hand, to mimic what would be heard if the conspiracy about phones listening to conversations were true. Using video recordings from my house’s security system, and from multiple devices such as the iPhone, Laptop and SmartTV’s in my home, the audience are not only able to see the individual outside the house, but once inside, it keeps recording, following him as he progresses through his ordinary afternoon activities.
Through conducting practice-led research, I came to the conclusion that a video format would be best to present my concept, as I wanted to closely reflect what would be seen from the hackers point of view, and therefore put the audience in the hackers’ position. The public/private binary in our society has become completely compromised due to the increasing presence of technology and access to the internet in our homes. How are we able to determine when we are completely private, and when we are not? By responding to my chosen question and interrogating this constructed binary, I have uncovered new insights about our private and public spheres, and the significance of them within our society.
From: https://klidbury2018.tumblr.com/post/178231699420/lens