Smile! You’re on CCTV

“Security is both a feeling and a reality, and they’re different. You can feel secure even though you’re not, and you can be secure even though you don’t feel it.”

 

—  Bruce Schneier

An installation about feeling secure even though you’re not, and being secure even though you don’t feel it. In Smile! You’re on CCTV the visitor enters a room with several hidden IP cameras and one central video surveillance monitor placed on a desk. On several sticky notes placed on the walls and the floor, the visitor can read quotes on the subject of privacy, CCTV, security, safety and the rise of the ‘politics of fear’. The video monitor shows several (delayed) video streams of the cameras capturing the image of the visitor. Because of this delay, the visitor can watch himself on the monitor walking around the room, while he was reading these quotes. 

Year

2011

Kind

Interactive video installation

Location

Neudeflat, Utrecht.

Exhibition ‘10 jaar 911’, Vrede van Utrecht.

Curated by Willem Westermann.

Extra information

In the video below (in Dutch), I explain a bit more about the conceptual motives for this project.