"Everyone as Other: Video surveillance and the right to be invisible"

1. "Everyone as Other: Video surveillance and the right to be invisible" CRI5 CRIMINOLOGY -- PROJECT CHRIS MCCORMICK

2. INTRODUCTION • This project looks at the topic of CCTV from the perspective of modern surveillance theory • Included are pictures of surveillance cameras around the city of Fredericton • These are used for both public and private purposes • --they surveil pubic, private, and ‘semi-public’ areas        • Most cctv employed by private companies for own security, property-loss prevention • --yet deployment into space where public is invited (expressly or implied), makes it a public issue • --creates physical, mental & emotional spaces

4. video surveillance important due to ubiquity of camera --consequences of everyday life subject to surveillance --feature of daily life in urban Canadian landscape perpetually taping public transactions of private individuals --buying gas, at the bank, and inside commercial stores --surveilled driving through fast-food lines, entering buildings --watched inside hospital and walking around university --taped from inside bank machines and inside elevators Largely innocuous, they are a low-key, but ever-present element of modern urban life Can you identify the Freddy-cam in the picture on the next slide? Click through to see a closeup). TOPIC

7. camera

8. Used largely by private companies for security reasons --comprise network of video surveillance, ’contains’ public Fredericton public CCTV: Piper's Alley, --but also citycams, university, high school, hospital …. However, there is a vast 'network' of private camerage --eg. gas stations; fast food outlets; banks; grocery stores TOPIC, CONT.

10. Available to police/courts during investigation, prosecution • --create network of visual control accessible by the state • --downloaded onto private sphere, but usable by state • Focus on 'semi-public' areas, largely controlled by private companies, but where public invited (expressly or implied) • --also located within public areas (schools), to which the public has less access. NEXT: “Surveillance is the most meticulous when it is directed against the lower class”

11. NEXT: “Surveillance is the most meticulous when it is directed against the lower class”

14. GENERAL ISSUES OF SURVEILLANCE • Foucault’s metaphor of surveillance • Based on Bentham’s panopticon ‘prison’ conceived in 18thC • Panopticon circular building with prisoners in cells on rim • Dimly lit central tower, few inspectors needed to monitor multitudes of inmates • The cells illuminated, thus prisoners found it difficult to tell whether observers were there or watching any particular cell • ‘Gaze’ sovereign: prisoners were seen but could not see • Coercion not needed because inmates individualized    • “Power so perfected rendered its practical use unnecessary”

15. ISSUES, CONT. • Social controls dispersed, extended • “deeper penetration of control into the social body” • New ‘scanscapes’ of control, indirect regulation • Based on calculations of risk • 1/ Retreat of state in maintenance of order • --can’t guarantee safety, security • --devolution of crime prevention onto victim • 2/ shift from identification of individuals to aggregates • --deviance not moralistic but probable-istic

16. FINDINGS • Visuals collected from around city • --public, private, and semi-public areas • --high-density commercial areas • Most cameras private, some public • However, private/public distinction inadequate • Many (private) areas are where public invited • 1/ “Semi-public areas”: surveilled as if under suspicion • 2/ “Semi-public areas”: physical & mental spaces • --anonymous movement through watched spaces • --watch oneself because of being watched • --management of risk assumes no one can be trusted

18. ANALYTIC SIGNIFICANCE • Video surveillance is an important topic because of: • 1/ understanding the organization of public life • --control done through modern institutions • --the panopticon is the viewing of the public • 2/ the development of systems of control • --ruling at a distance, temporally and spatially • --creates the illusion of safety • 3/ theorizing the self in modern society • --surveillance makes us feel distrusted • --creates urban space as muting personal expression

19. Video surveillance situated in use in modern society Illustrations from collection of Fredericton's video cams Theorizing surveillance as expression of power --unintended consequence modifying of emotional life --shaping expression of proper consumer behaviour -- no one is beyond suspicion Two conceptual discoveries made during auto/ethnography --1/ person moves through public, private, & ‘semi-public’ spaces in modern city -- 2/ person moves through spaces physically, mentally, emotionally Public watches itself being watched, moves confident in realization of surveillance, despite being object of suspicion CONCLUSION