Tag Archives: online

My Work, Research

Research 02: Online Privacy

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Is the internet a massive cyber peephole? Sounds like a sensational question? But such claim may not be that far from the truth.

No matter how hacked-savvy people like Julian Assange or Lulzsec is, there has to be a source pool where they get their information from. (Data simply don’t manifest themselves out of thin air.) And the existence of this source pool is why online privacy is an illusion.

A Bit[E] Of Me is an experimental artwork where the artist, Federico Zannier, is literally selling his personal data on the internet. Specifically, he is selling data of his online activities. Eg. The websites he visit, the post he made on forums, etc.

“Since February, I have been recording all of my online activity (the HTML pages I have visited, the position of the mouse pointer, a screenshot of what I was looking at, a webcam image of me looking at my computer, my GPS location and a log of the apps that I was using). Check out myprivacy.info to see some of the visualizations I’ve made.”

-https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461902402/a-bit-e-of-me

(Unfortunately said data collection does not include how many time he scratches his nose for a particular day. (But you can buy his NSFW browser histroy for $2!)

Practically everyone of us has given up some degree of personal data to companies online via Facebook, Amazon, or Ebay. And said companies may have used those data for monetary purposes without us receiving a single cent of commission or royalties. Remember seeing those long list of texts ending with “I Agree” or “I Decline”? Giving out license to use our personal data for free is literally a button click away.

“Why not profit from our own personal data directly? It’s not like I can hide them anyway” is probably what goes in Zannier’s mind.

Zannier’s motivation is clear. He wants to raise awareness on how frivolous we are with our online data. He wants to highlight the absurdity of such irrational phenomenon. He wants to earn a few bucks along the way. Online privacy is pretty much a false facade, might as well make use of it right?

The advent of the internet has allowed data of all forms to be visualized and quantified. Graphs, maps, charts, images, or videos instead of strings of code. Everything we do online is collected in digital data form and can be chronicled into books or made into film if we want to (disregarding the entertainment factor). As much as we are concern with our online privacy, the moment we step into the internet, such privacy is void. In fact, it may be non-existing. So what if you set your online blog or social network account to private. The moment you saved and publish anything it will always be stored there in the server, up for grabs by anyone who can. So what if you have a high grade cyber security network. It can stop malicious software or incoming threat but for how long? Our online data are all up for grabs by potentially anyone. Companies where you registered an account, government agencies looking for “terrorists”, 4chan lurkers, etc. And we keep giving up our personal information with no means of stopping. Unless we stop using the internet entirely, this is not going to change. (Hint: We can’t.)

On hindsight, how many creepy voyeurs would bother invading your digital private space? If there are what are the consequences? People like Zannier is not revealing his bank details nor anything physically personal — simply his superficial online presence that bares no direct dire consequences to his life if exposed. People post pictures of themselves, their location and their inner thoughts on Facebook every time anyway. (That’s still no excuse for stalking.)

Nevertheless, if we bother locking our doors at night, we should do the same to our personal online space. We can forget about having total privacy but try not to have zero deterrence either.

Research

Research 01: Online Streaming

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“The Telegarden is an art installation that allows web users to view and interact with a remote garden filled with living plants. Members can plant, water, and monitor the progress of seedlings via the tender movements of an industrial robot arm.”

From http://www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/garden/Ars/

The Telegarden (with regards to its description above) may sound like a typical school project by today standard. But I should draw your attention to the fact that this “typical” artwork was first introduced in 1995 — a period where domestic internet applications were still scarce and remote.

The contemporary online culture is something many of us have been taking for granted. But turning back the pendulum to the time where people are still paging one another, the internet relay system is barely practical. Sustaining 24-hour surveillance on a plant where viewers can remotely control a mechanical plant-nanny was breakthrough for the online relay system then. What is even more surprising is that such project has been sustaining till 2004 where it was then shut down. If it hasn’t, will it possibly last for decades? Very possible, considering the technology we have today.

In retrospect, such project may have potentially be one of the catalysts that pioneered the online relay streaming such as webcams, Skype or Facebook.

Meanwhile, back to current time, Goldberg’s idea of allowing multiple people to remotely contribute to what is streaming online has not gone obsolete and remains titillating.

Twitch Plays Pokemon is a project where anyone (literally anyone, no limitation on who or how many whatsoever) can input command for a video game Pokemon Red — streamed 24-7 via the online streaming service Twitch.

Like tossing a piece of meat into a piranha pond, chaos (and hilarity) ensues. For the first few hours, the community fights for control over the player character (often resulting in said character spinning in the same spot over and over). And like all mature adults, offensive words were tossed like salad in the online mosh pit. But the most astounding outcomes of this project were that the community actually comes to a consensus on how to progress the game. They have a vote on whether they go for the anarchic approach or the democratic approach. And in the end, the game was actually beaten in a few weeks. Considering the game complexity, length and the arbitrary nature of the online community, such results are nonetheless astounding.

Another great example will be Wafaa Bilal’s performance art project Domestic Tension in 2007. For 30 days, he will be streamed live via the internet for 24 hours. The catch is, he was confined to a room and viewers online can shoot him with a paintball machine he set up. Granted the message behind the project was noble – the true terror behind wars are the people who can fire the missiles in their comfort zone and something along that line. The result of such artwork was expectedly not pleasant. Let just say he left the room with a developed fear for paint.

The internet is an amazing (sometimes scary) tool for revealing a human condition — the willingness to participate if we are from a comfort zone not implicated by any collateral.  If a common purpose is presented to us via a third party space such as the internet, there will always be someone contributing to what was asked of them. Anonymity and remote control, two ideas that drives people into participating– how far of the boundaries can we pushed?