The Surveillance of the world.

The (in)visibility of protest.

I. Research

STREAKER

a person who runs naked through a public place in order to attract attention or to express strong disapproval of something:

The game was interrupted when two streakers ran onto the field with a banner.

(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/worterbuch/englisch/streaker)

The first case of streaking is documented in the end of the 18th century. A man got arrested for running naked in London. He confirmed later, that he would have got paid for this run.

The term streaking actually describes a way of running or fast walking.In the 70s a reporter watched one of many big nude runs (533 participants) at the University of Maryland and used the term to describe what he had seen.

The most famous streaks are the ones happening at big sports events, captured live on camera. There are several reasons to streak. For a streaker like Mark Roberts (with his very own special website http://www.thestreaker.org.uk/main.htm) its a form of protest for love and peace. The ukrainian feministic organisation Femen use streaking (bar breasts with a message written on their body) for protesting within prude societies for human rights. At the world cups final in 2018, three members of Pussy Riot stroke, dressed as russian police officers, demanding the release of political prisoners.

The example of Pussy Riot shows, that streakers don't actually have to be nude. The choice of outfit comes with the choice of the protests content.

The World under Surveillance

Since years, the surveillance of public places in the city, of private house doors, back yards, shops and undefined rooms gets stronger. Attacks like the one at Breitscheidplatz, Berlin, result in even more cameras and laws concerning the storage of the mass of data they produce.

Within my project I focussed on two sides of surveillance: 1. The easy access to unsecured or bad secured cameras. 2. The empty stage, filmed by this camera and the not existing audience.

II. Bringing Together Streaking and Surveillance Cameras

Streaking is only functional on a self chosen stage with a big audience. That can be, and is most effective, in an environment of media, where the action gets transported into the world. As streaking is a fast act, for the best effect, it has to be captured either on video or on photographs.

But still the best way to get attention with streaking is an unexpected appearance, live broadcasted into the livingrooms of thousands.

In a world of surveillance and security cameras there is a big chance to be live on screen. So why not reuse surveillance for protest purposes?

The only problem of streaking in front of surveillance cameras is the missing audience. The reason why nobody is watching: Most people don’t know how to get access into surveillance cameras. BUT: its a fact, that there is an uprising community, which is hacking into unlocked surveillance cameras, collecting their IP Addresses and making them accessible for everyone. Why not use those for streaking? If you are the streaker, you can easily share the IPs of your stage with the world and make the people watch.

III. Getting Access To CCTV Live Footage

The first plan: An interactive mixture of special cities, combined with sounds and streakers (who don't have to be nude, but rather wear a form of a regional uncommon outfit).

I knew it would be kind of easy to get access to CCTV cameras that are connected to the internet. But in fact, it was a lot of time invested for only a few results. I couldn't find surveillance cameras in the cities I wanted, so I decided to keep out the region based part of the project and just use every camera i could get access to.

The Tools:

There are a few websites showing CCTV footage of open source cameras, mostly city views. But I wanted to find cameras, that are not meant to be streamed to a bigger audience.

So I tried to find WIFI-connected Cameras via their IP Addresses.

1. I used the software Angry IP Scanner, to scan a range of IP Addresses. The software gets information about the ports and hostnames, so that you can easily pick out the cameras. BUT: it is a lot of waiting and trying, because once you have the IP Address, you still need the username and password. There are lists of default passwords for a lot of different cameras. These only work if it haven't been changed.

2. There are already a lot of lists and collections of easy accessible Network Cameras on different internet platforms. As the IP Scanner took a lot of time, i ended up using cameras out of these lists.

Most of the cameras I used were only accessible for a very short amount of time.

III. Realization

Conceptional and Aesthetic Tests

Paper Collages as a Pamphlet

While working with screen captured live footage, and digital collages, I finally decided to print, make and paint paper collages and texts for a pamphlet you could hand out and hang. The pamphlet can be seen as a starting point of protest: It is an easy instruction for protesting via CCTV.

The Collages in an Installation

At Werkschau, the collages were part of an installation.

The place showed in the installation is meant to be a hidden spot for spying on peoples privacy by watching footage of surveillance cameras on a TV, placed in a dark locker. The collages and instructions of streaking in front of these cameras find their places around the TV on the locker walls and on the floor. They could either be the outcome of the viewers protesting mind or the printed versions of a pervert looking for naked people caught on camera.

IV. The Future of C/Streak/TV

The project has got a potential of being developed further. First I had difficulties with choosing the medium I wanted the theme to be expressed in. The collages can be seen as a first attempt of leading to a huge wave of protest. My attempt is to create a multimedia performance.