After seeing two cop cars disguised as taxis in two days, I became very aware of how we are being watched all the time over here. Not only by humans, but by a LOT of cameras.
I was at the door of 169 cafe in Manhatan with a friend when a taxi cab stopped by and started flashing the lights that identify them as undercover cops. They had ordered a car in front to stop. The taxi-cops went over with their guns in hand and asked the guy for documents. THis happens pretty frequently here, as you can see:
The situation was not so tense for me, as Im used to cops wearing machine-guns in police stops in Brasil - and MC's wearing them as necklaces in funk parties in Rio de Janeiro:
Anyway, the whole cop-disguised thing put me on an awareness of how much we are being watched and filmed all the time.
Tonight I went to Le Bain, a cool bar in the top of Standard Hotel. I was talking to a friend as we were smoking something illegal on a disguised, shaped-as-a-cigarette pipe, known here as "one-hitters" (They can be found in any smoke shop, BTW). He was telling me how he manages to smoke certain substances every day for the past 10 years without getting caught: you have to be aware of the cameras, discreet, and a bit lucky, of course.
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| the one-hitters |
In Manhattan you are on camera EVERYWHERE, 24 hours. City cameras, store cameras, surveillance cameras, infra-red cameras. But, as he said, its not like the police hires people to watch the cameras 24 hours in detail. In case something happens, of course, they go for the footage.
I hate being watched all the time. But what Im most afraid of is near future's (maybe present) security systems. They can tag you, detect and track your presence throughout the city. So those systems don't need a human to watch and control who is coming or going here and there. Machines do it automatically.
How is freedom going to be when machines have our personal data to detect us and track us on the streets?
I guess things have to keep going by the rule: for every law, theres a trick.
My friend Mark Shepard is a teacher in the University of Buffalo and develops a project exactly focused on ways to "fool" this future "control" machines. Its called "Sentient City Survival Kit". It involves communicators connected to our underwares, a coffee mug that broadcasts messages, and even a LED umbrella designed to confuse night vision cameras. Its amazing and very interesting.
Check this out:
Know more: http://survival.sentientcity.net/
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