The work of artists in a databased society: Net.Art as online activism - Features - Internet standards and a Free Society - Excerpt

Afterimage, March, 2002 by Richard Miranda Zuniga

The subtitle of "iSEE" is "v.911: 'Now more than ever"' and the phrase "Now more than ever" is in direct protest to the United States Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism measure signed by the Bush administration following the events of September 11, 2001. The law strongly sets back a U.S. citizen's ability to protect individual liberty, and it affects immigrant residents and citizens in particular. Among the various provisions set forth by the new law are a strong reduction of judicial supervision of federal telephone and Internet surveillance conducted by law enforcement authorities, and it expands the ability of the government to conduct secret searches, including online investigation and monitoring.

On January 4, The New York Times reported the first case directly influenced by the U.S. Patriot Act in which a federal judge in Newark, New jersey ruled that evidence surreptitiously gathered by the FBI about Nicodemo S. Scarfo's reputed loan shark operation can be presented in a trial later this year: "U.S. District Judge Nicholas Politan said last week that it was perfectly acceptable for FBI agents armed with a court order to sneak into Scarfo's office, plant a keystroke sniffer in his PC and monitor its output...The flap started last week, when news reports began to appear about an FBI project code-named "Magic Lantern" [that]reportedly works by masquerading as an innocent email attachment that will insert FBI spyware inside your computer." The judge went on to state that "each day, advanced computer technologies and the increased accessibility to the Internet means criminal behavior is becoming more sophisticated and complex...As a result of this surge in so-called "cyber crime," law enforcement's abili ty to vigorously pursue such rogues cannot be hindered where all constitutional limitations are scrupulously observed..." (21)

The position of the judge coupled with a desire for security and protection after September II can be juxtaposed with the work of IAA to present a social dialogue on authoritative power that illustrates Michel Foucault's observation on the conjuncture of power/knowledge as a dynamic force: "What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it doesn,t only weigh on us as a force that says no, but that it traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. It needs to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole social body, much more than as a negative instance whose function is repression." (22)

IAA will do its part in keeping the discourse alive as there are plans to further develop "iSEE," which is only one part of a much larger project. IAA would like to make greater practical use of "iSEE" data in real-time protest, so that marching activists may inform one another of police locations via a customized mapping application for handheld computers. Such use would avoid potential disruption of protests. IAA would also like to map the use of surveillance cameras in other cities such as London and Seattle, two cities saturated with CCTV where demonstrators and police have recently clashed. Lastly, IAA plans to develop a handheld kit with GPS receivers that allow operatives anywhere to document a CCTV camera when spotted by wirelessly feeding the data to a remote database. Therefore the documentation and surveillance of public surveillance would be entirely decentralized and effectively reversed. Through this process, the IAA looks to subvert corporate and governmental use of the Internet as a mechanism of social analysis and surveillance. By turning it into a tool that makes the actions of public protest more efficient, it seeks to lay claim on self-determination.