Gregory Taylor

The urge (or temptation) to use someone else's 

 as creative grist for our mills isn't always accompanied by contemplation of the discourse we're cozying up to, although perhaps it should - we are, after all, surrounded by debates on 

 whose websites feed us the materials we transcode and freely access, albeit for other purposes than those who collect it may have in mind.

As artists, I think there's an interesting space for how we might assist in forming and enabling that larger conversation 

panopticon references here, if you feel so inclined>

. Examples of that new media art that engage with this idea aren't thin on the ground (not even in 

I'm generally drawn to approaches that eschew the propositional and favor playfulness over rumbling subwoofers, so you might guess that the 

's precisely balanced cocktail of the surveillance of ordinary people mashed up with cheesy classic music videos would be of interest to me.

The Surveillance Video Entertainment Network (or 

) has had a couple of forms in a couple of places over the years, and is the brainchild of 

 the same Amy Alexander who's been involved with 

. You might want to troll around in there a little bit after you're done reading this. It's full of treasure.

I ran across news of the project initially in connection to its installation at the Whitney Museum:

SVEN (Surveillance Video Entertainment Network), detecting rock stars in the Whitney's "Profiling" exhibition, Summer 2007. Music video cinematography meets CCTV. SVEN is also available in its original version - a van-based street performance. 

SVEN homepage:
http://deprogramming.us/sven
SVEN Van Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evlmZKlKDY8

SVEN at the Whitney Museum, New York

Since then, I've been amused by the development of a mobile version of the network, too:

A video explaining the SVEN system, and showing the SVEN surveillance van (aka SVAN) in action, looking for potential rock stars on the street. More info: http://deprogramming.us/sven

See also: 
SVEN the museum installation - 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJK6DGnUj5w

SVEN - Surveillance Video Entertainment Network

I appreciate how it doesn't require a manifesto or a pamphlet - while the substitution of "rockstar" for "terrorist" and turn of the century pop music for alarms and sirens are engaging, the sense of violation, unease, and co-optation persists.

The urge (or temptation) to use someone else's big data as creative grist for our mills isn't always accompanied by contemplation of the discourse we're cozying up to, although perhaps it should - we are, after all, surrounded by debates on the rise of the surveillance society whose websites feed us the materials we transcode and freely access, albeit for other purposes than those who collect it may have in mind.

As artists, I think there's an interesting space for how we might assist in forming and enabling that larger conversation panopticon references here, if you feel so inclined>. Examples of that new media art that engage with this idea aren't thin on the ground (not even in the Projects page of our own website) and go back quite a ways.

I'm generally drawn to approaches that eschew the propositional and favor playfulness over rumbling subwoofers, so you might guess that the Surveillance Video Entertainment Network's precisely balanced cocktail of the surveillance of ordinary people mashed up with cheesy classic music videos would be of interest to me.

The Surveillance Video Entertainment Network (or SVEN) has had a couple of forms in a couple of places over the years, and is the brainchild of Amy Alexander, aka DJ Übergeek (Yes, it is the same Amy Alexander who's been involved with the Runme.org software art repository. You might want to troll around in there a little bit after you're done reading this. It's full of treasure. 

Since then, I've been amused by the development of a mobile version of the network, too: 

I appreciate how it doesn't require a manifesto or a pamphlet - while the substitution of "rockstar" for "terrorist" and turn of the century pop music for alarms and sirens are engaging, the sense of violation, unease, and co-optation persists.


Project Focus: Unsuspecting Rockstars From The Corridors and Streets of America