Comments on: ISEA Fashion (Wearable Computing) Report

By: nick

nick — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 17:04:05 +0000

Scott, I have read about those billboard-blocking capacilities, but don’t know any more details. I was thinking of a particular video I saw in the List gallery at MIT, in which Steve went into several establishments that prominently displayed surveillance equipment carrying a video camera and explaining that it was only fair that he videotape everything too, for his personal safety, just as the store/hotel was videotaping for reasons of corporate secuirty. People would often hustle him out or tell him to stop taping, even though they were taping him without permission at that very moment. Sometimes they would cover the camera lens, but he’d have a wearable camera on, too. So, one of the practical uses of his system has been to expose and critique corporate surveillance.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 12:47:41 +0000

Note — Tuesday 8:30AM I corrected the two above noted typos and added pictures of the inflatable suit from Noah. Nick — yes, I am aware of Mann’s position re: surveillance. Doesn’t he also have software that blocks out billboards from his vision, like a spam blocker? Thanks for including the info on Rhodes.

By: katherine

katherine — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 08:12:00 +0000

FYI, it’s not “Borszowka” it’s “Berzowska”…

By: Greg Turner

Greg Turner — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 07:52:42 +0000

It was Club Bon Bon, although I'm sure that Cory would be flattered!

By: nick

nick — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 05:21:32 +0000

Thanks for the extensive writeup, Scott, providing us a good glimpse of yet another talk I wish I had heard. It's worth noting that the Remembrance Agent is the work of Brad Rhodes, not of Steve Mann. Steve, now at University of Toronto, has pioneered personal surveillance systems. His vision of "everyone walking down the street ... constantly performing background checks on everyone else" is meant to counter the reality of there being only corporate and government surveillance of individuals, and his work as an artist and technologist is quite provocative in this regard. I think you'd find that it addresses your concerns about surveillance in a very interesting way, rather than promoting a panoptic nightmare.