Locative Media & Surveillance

There's an interesting story online from the BBC on locative media and surveillance. It describes an art project at the San Jose Zero One ISEA 2006 symposium that traced attendees movements without their knowledge. The team behind it fixed nodes to traffic lights and pedestrian crossings at busy intersections, dressed in the bright orange overalls of municipal workers. Other tracking nodes were deployed in hotel lobbies, cafes and cinemas, placed in flowerpots, and buried beneath bar terraces. One of the artists involved, Drew Hemmet, was interviewed for the story:

The attendees were also sent messages through bluejacking - the process of scanning for and connecting to other Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices without the owners' consent.

"That is actually a surveillance act - so every time you use Bluetooth you're actually looking to see what other devices are around you, and without disclosing who you are," said Mr Hemmet.

"Someone received messages from someone who had intimate knowledge of their movements, that were written in such a way as to make them think that maybe they signed up to some social network, but forgot.

"Then, over the week, the messages got slowly more sinister - and changed from 'coffee later?' to 'are you ignoring me?'"

The messages ultimately directed people towards the Loca stand at Zero One, where people could scan their device and receive a personalised printout of their movements.

Some individual logs were over 100m long.

The nodes are placed on walls and street furniture. "A lot of people were very surprised that we were technically able to do it," Mr Hemmet added.

For more see BBC and Zero One