CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style - spy drones...

Hi Rhizomers,

Found some interesting information about 'surveillance'. We know that some artists on this list have been exploring in their work, various aspects regarding this subject…

Wishing all well.

marc


CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style spy drones - Arms manufacturer BAE Systems developing national strategy with consortium of
government agencies. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/cctv-sky-police-plan-drones

"According to documents obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, the UK police plan on deploying unmanned drones in the UK to 'revolutionize policing' and extend domestic 'surveillance, monitoring and evidence gathering,' which will be used in 'the routine work of the police, border authorities and other government agencies.' The documents come from the South Coast Partnership, 'a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan' in conjunction with BAE Systems. The stated aim is to introduce the system in time for the 2012 Olympics. Initially, Kent police stated that the system would be used to monitor shipping lanes and illegal immigrants, but the documents reveal that this was part of a PR strategy: 'There is potential for these [maritime] uses to be projected as a "good news" story to the public rather than more "big
brother."' However, the documents talk about a much wider range of usage, such as '[detecting] theft from cash machines, preventing theft of tractors and monitoring antisocial driving,' as well as 'road and railway monitoring, search and rescue, event security and covert urban surveillance.' Also, due to the expense involved, it has also been suggested that some data could be sold off to private companies, or the drones could be used for commercial purposes." Comments from Slashdot.

Also - Here are some links on furtherfield to reviews/articles about
art, related to surveillance:

Mapping CCTV around Whitehall.
"Mapping CCTV around Whitehall", 2008, is, as its name implies, a
performance of mapping Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) security cameras
around the UK's parliament in London and a video record of that
performance by Ambient.tv's Manu Luksch. Review by Rob Myers.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=366

The 4th Radiator festival. Going Underground - Surveillance and
Sousveillance.
Exploits in the Wireless City is the 4th Radiator festival and symposium
to date, which lasted between 13-24 January 2009, 10 days of
Exhibitions, Events, Screenings, Music, Artists' Talks and more. Marc
Garrett writes about the commission for the festival 'Going
Underground', enquiring how the works relate to the theme of
Surveillance and Sousveillance.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=338

Norwayweb and Data Bodies.
A Net Art project by Bjorn Magnhildoen that Scrapes tax information from
over 4 million Norwegians from different databases into a real-time artwork.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=295