In an earlier post I mentioned coming across BLDGBLOG’s concept of psychovideography…

If security firms are the new providers of our urban unconscious, a hundred thousand endless films recording twenty-fours a day, indefinitely, then we should perhaps find that the outdated methodologies of the psychogeographers have hit an impasse. The ‘geo-’ is now in the ‘video-’, as it were, and the ‘-graphy’ survives just the same. Throw in some 24-hour ‘psycho-’, and we begin to see the city through the lens of an unacknowledged avant-garde: a subset of the film industry whose advance front has taken on the guise of security.

When you live in a city with 9000 government surveilance cameras it’s really easy to relate to the idea of psychovideography. But I’ve just stumbled across another interesting look (excuse the pun) at surveilance. The Surveillance Video Entertainment Network

SVEN (Surveillance Video Entertainment Network) is a system comprised of a camera, monitor, and two computers that can be set up in public places - especially in situations where a CCTV monitor might be expected. The software consists of a custom computer vision application that tracks pedestrians and detects their characteristics, and a real-time video processing application that receives this information and uses it to generate music-video like visuals from the live camera feed. The resulting video and audio are displayed on a monitor in the public space, interrupting the standard security camera type display each time a potential rock star is detected. The idea is to humorously examine and demystify concerns about surveillance and computer systems not in terms of being watched, but in terms of how the watching is being done - and how else it might be done if other people were at the wheel..

Have a look at the video demonstrations on thier website, they look really good. This is a really great project because it’s drawing attention to practises already in place, ie behaviour profiling.

New Scientist. Smart software linked to CCTV can spot dubious behaviour

It could be the dawn of a new era in surveillance. For the first time, smart software will help CCTV operators spot any abnormal behaviour.

If the trial due to go live in two London Underground stations this week is a success, it could accelerate the adoption of the technology around the world. The software, which analyses CCTV footage, could help spot suicide attempts, overcrowding, suspect packages and trespassers. The hope is that by automating the prediction or detection of such events security staff, who often have as many as 60 cameras to monitor simultaneously, can reach the scene in time to prevent a potential tragedy

BBC. Surveillance cameras to predict behaviour

Civil rights organisation Liberty is concerned that such systems will not be properly regulated.

“It is not so much the technology but how it is used that concerns us, and how to keep the balance between protecting safety and protecting privacy,” said a spokesperson for Liberty.

“If software is going to be looking at behavioural patterns, who defines what behaviour merits further attention?” he asked.

There’s no question, surveilance is here to stay but as the technology gets more sophisticated our relationship with surveilance will change. Psychovideography and SVEN explores the changing relationship but the real question is, what changes will we have to make?

Just stumbled across a great article on south africa’s finest

Remote and still relatively secret, South Africa is turning into a healthy haven for dozens of digitally literate kids wielding laptops, antique synths and deftly programmed electronic music. This subterranean output is beginning to permeate other parts of the planet, with local electronic tunes landing up on labels based in London and NYC, generating appreciation in international journals like Wire, and being played out on wide-reaching radio stations.

With connections to the international cool music set still multiplying, and with underground kudos well and truly secure, could South Africa’s electronica elite be “the next big thing?” And might they start to find a more appreciative audience in their own country?

While they’re amongst our most promising exports - attracting plenty of attention far afield for their defiant grooves - most locals will look at you quizzically when you mention names. So, here are a few recent firsts for the electro fold, for your info…

What you waiting for? go read the rest! (You can find some of the albums mentioned in The Bin.)