'Sentient City Survival Kit' lets citizens flirt with surveillance
By Daniel Nye Griffiths21 May 12

The city is watching you. CCTV cameras track your movements. ISPs record the
web sites you visit. Police and governments might read your tweets -- or your
emails. Your phone, your Oyster card and even your clothes might be disclosing
information to chip-reading identity thieves. When the smart city takes an
interest in your movements, how does the individual outsmart it?

This was the question Mark Shepard, former architect and fellow of New York's
Eyebeam Arts and Technology Centre, had in mind when he created the Sentient
City Survival Kit. The Kit, currently on show at the Dutch Electronic Arts
Festival in Rotterdam, imagines street-level solutions for a near future of
constant observation.

Shepard describes the kit as intended to "flirt with data algorithms" -- to
retain some mystery and regain some power over monitoring technology. As we
move through the city, we share information, often without even knowing it,
with numerous systems -- CCTV setups, travelcard readers, mobile phone masts
and many other digital spies.

Under(a)ware (pictured) is underwear designed to alert the wearer to RFID tag
skimming by discreetly vibrating whenever they are scanned. The Ad Hoc (dark)
Roast Network hides a wireless mesh network in the base of travel coffee mugs,
allowing commuters to create a temporary, train-sized network on their morning
journey, exchanging short messages with each other using a screen set into the
lid. Of course, this could be used for nefarious purposes -- but so could
speech, or writing. Not every communication needs to go through official
channels.

Sometimes, especially in a CCTV-choked city like London, it's not your
electronic signals that are being watched, but you. Cameras with night-vision
capabilities can identify you and follow your movements. That's when the
CCD-me-not Umbrella comes in handy. Its canopy is studded with infrared LED
lights, activated by a button in the handle. Invisible to human eyes, they
shine on night-vision CCD sensors like the sun, blinding the camera.

To round off the kit, Serendipitor is a playful way to navigate your city.
While regular mobile phone maps provide directions for the shortest route,
Serendipitor rewards meandering and adventuring. At every turn of its
turn-by-turn instructions, it gives you a mission, which may lead you off your
chosen route. You'll still get where you need to go, but your journey might
take unexpected turns.

Cities are getting smarter , and the Sentient City Survival Kit is a reminder
that they may not always have our best interests at heart.

The Sentient City Survival Kit is on display at the Dutch Electronic Arts
Festival exhibition, Rotterdam, until 3 June. Sentient City: Ubiquitous
Computing, Architecture, and the Future of Urban Space is published by MIT
Press.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/21/surviving-in-the-sentient-city

-The opinions expressed are not necessarily an advocation of any of the
aforementioned ideologies, concepts, or actions.  We still have the freedom of
speech, for now, and I enjoy using it in a satirical or ficticious manner to
amuse myself.-

“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary
act.”--  George Orwell
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