>> Manu Luksch, Faceless, 2004

from: http://www.ambienttv.net/content/?q=facelessthemovie


"the movie

- a CCTV sci-fi fairy-tale by MANU LUKSCH

SYNOPSIS In a society under the reformed 'Real-Time' Calendar, without history nor future, everybody is faceless. A woman panics when she wakes up one day with a face. With the help of the Spectral Children she slowly finds out more about the lost power and history of the human face and begins the search for its future.

FACELESS was produced under the rules of the 'Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers'. The manifesto states, amongst other things, that additional cameras are not permitted at filming locations, as the omnipresent existing video surveillance (CCTV) is already in operation.

MAKING-OF: The UK Data Protection Act and EU directives give individuals the right to access personal data held in computer filing systems. This includes images captured by CCTV recording systems. For a nominal fee (£10), an individual can obtain a copy of this data: financial or medical records, or video recordings. Other legislation states that the privacy of third parties must be protected. In CCTV recordings, this is done by erasing the faces of other people in the images - hence the 'faceless' world.

voice: TILDA SWINTON
choreography: THE BALLET BOYZ
soundtrack: MUKUL piano music: RUPERT HUBER
produced by AMOUR FOU and AMBIENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS contact: info[at]ambientTV.NET
international distribution / sales: SIXPACK FILM , contact: Gerald Weber gerald[at]sixpackfilm.com

"RealTime orients the life of every citizen. Eating, resting, going to work, getting married – every act is tied to RealTime. And every act leaves a trace of data – a footprint in the snow of noise..." (excerpt of FACELESS) "

trailer + excerpt of the movie:

>> Manifesto for CCTV filmmakers

from: http://www.ambienttv.net/content/?q=dpamanifesto

"MANIFESTO FOR CCTV FILMMAKERS declares a set of rules, establishes effective procedures, and identifies further issues for filmmakers using pre-existing CCTV (surveillance) systems as a medium in the UK. The manifesto is constructed with reference to the Data Protection Act 1998 and related privacy legislation that gives the subjects of data records (including CCTV footage) access to copies of the data. The filmmaker's standard equipment is thus redundant; indeed, its use is prohibited. The manifesto can easily be adapted for different jurisdictions."

MANIFESTO FOR CCTV FILMMAKERS (UK VERSION, 2004)

GENERAL

The filmmaker is not permitted to introduce any cameras or lighting into the location.

SCRIPT

A protagonist ("data subject") is required to feature in all sequences.
Data Protection Act 1998; 1998 Chapter 29; Part II Section 7(1). **
[A]n individual is entitled –
(a) to be informed by any data controller whether personal data of which that individual is the data subject are being processed by or on behalf of that data controller,
(b) if that is the case, to be given by the data controller a description of –
(i) the personal data of which that individual is the data subject,
(ii) the purposes for which they are being or are to be processed, and
(iii) the recipients or classes of recipients to whom they are or may be disclosed,
(c) to have communicated to him in an intelligible form –
(i) the information constituting any personal data of which that individual is the data subject, and
(ii) any information available to the data controller as to the source of those data, and
(d) where the processing by automatic means of personal data of which that individual is the data subject for the purpose of evaluating matters relating to him such as, for example, his performance at work, his creditworthiness, his reliability or his conduct, has constituted or is likely to constitute the sole basis for any decision significantly affecting him, to be informed by the data controller of the logic involved in that decision-taking.

The documented activity of the protagonist must qualify as personal or sensitive data. The filmmaker is to establish this by locating a surveillance camera and circumscribing the field of action for the actors relative to it, so that incidents of biographical relevance (i.e. that reveal personal data) occur in the frame.
ICO CCTV systems and the Data Protection Act JB v.5 01/02/04 (***)
2. The court decided that for information to relate to an individual (and be covered by the DPA) it had to affect their privacy. To help judge this, the Court decided that two matters were important: that a person had to be the focus of information, the information tells you something significant about them.

The provisions of the 1998 Act are based on the requirements of a European Directive, which at, Article 2, defines, personal data as follows:
“Personal data” shall mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; an identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.
The definition of personal data is not therefore limited to circumstances where a data controller can attribute a name to a particular image. If images of distinguishable individuals’ features are processed and an individual can be identified from these images, they will amount to personal data.

All people other than the protagonist ("third parties") will be rendered unidentifiable on the data obtained from the CCTV operators. Typically, operators blur or mask out faces of third parties. The filmmaker is to consider the visual impact of this manipulation, and to establish a rule for the handling of footage delivered with ineffectual masking or blurring – for example, reporting the offence.
Right to Privacy in Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (****):
RIGHT TO RESPECT FOR PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE
1. Everyone has the right to respect for private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights or freedoms of others.

DPA1998
4. On the other hand, the disclosure of third party information in compliance with a subject access request may also expose the data controller to complaint or action by the third party, for example [...] for breach of confidence.
6. The data controller should consider to what extent it is possible to communicate the information sought without disclosing any third party information [...] This might be achieved by editing the information to remove names or other identifying details.

LOCATION

The filmmaker is to choose sites that are covered by multiple surveillance cameras, preferably operated by a large business, private security firm or public authority – or, if operated by a small retailer, cameras of the kind that can be panned and zoomed remotely. Sites may be mobile – for example, a public bus.
ICO CCTV systems and the Data Protection Act JB v.5 01/02/04
If you have just a basic CCTV system your use may no longer be covered by the DPA. [...] Small retailers would not be covered who
– only have a couple of cameras,
– can't move them remotely,
– just record on video tape whatever the camera picks up,
– only give the recorded images to the police to investigate an incident in their shop.

For every camera used, the operator's name and contact details are to be noted.
Code of practice issued by the Data Protection Commissioner, under Section 51(3)(b) of the Data Protection Act 1998, 07/2000 (*****)
7. Signs should be placed so that the public are aware that they are entering a zone which is covered by surveillance equipment.
The signs should contain the following information:
Identity of the person or organisation responsible for the scheme.
The purposes of the scheme.
Details of whom to contact regarding the scheme.
(First Data Protection Principle).

FOOTAGE REQUESTS

After completing each shoot, the filmmaker is to address a written request ("subject access request letter") to the CCTV operator ("data controller") immediately to ensure that the data recovery process can be initiated while the recordings are still archived. (Mandatory retention periods vary.)
Code of practice issued by the Data Protection Commissioner, under Section 51(3)(b) of the Data Protection Act 1998, 07/2000
1. Once the retention period has expired, the images should be removed or erased (Fifth Data Protection Principle).

The subject access request letter is to state the place and time of the recording and include a picture of the protagonist, wearing the same clothes if possible, and a cheque for £10 (the maximum fee chargeable). Letters should be sent by a secure system which provides evidence of delivery. (Some data controllers may require the notarisation of the letter to legally establish identity.)
Data Protection Act 1998; 1998 Chapter 29, Part II Section 7(2)
A data controller is not obliged to supply any information under subsection (1) unless he has received –
(a) a request in writing, and
(b) except in prescribed cases, such fee (not exceeding the prescribed maximum) as he may require.

The filmmaker is to allow a maximum 40 days after sending the data request for an initial response.
Code of practice issued by the Data Protection Commissioner, under Section 51(3)(b) of the Data Protection Act 1998, 07/2000
A data controller must comply with a subject access request promptly, and in any event within forty days of receipt of the request or, if later, within forty days of receipt of:
the information required (i.e. to satisfy himself as to the identity of the person making the request and to locate the information which that person seeks); and the fee.

The filmmaker is to establish a set of rules for handling the various formats in which the data may be sent (video tape, DVD-video, digital files encoded with proprietary codecs, hard copies of frames).

SOUND

CCTV systems are not permitted record sound. The filmmaker is to establish a set of rules for the soundtrack (if any) of the movie – for example, prohibiting field recordings.

DISTRIBUTION

Footage received is subject to complex copyright issues. The filmmaker is to take legal advice and establish a strategy.

FOOTNOTES

(*) In addition to the boom in surveillance, the proliferation of miniature mobile cameras (many built into phones and other handheld devices) has led to the phenomenon of "sous-veillance" activities carried out by the population at large. News services now actively solicit amateur recordings from camcorders and even mobile phones, often combining them with CCTV footage where they have access to it, when reporting from scenes of crimes, accidents or natural disasters. The manifesto can be extended to provide a framework for films that work with acts of sous-veillance.

(**) Data Protection Act 1998 Chapter 29
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1998/19980029.htm

(***) CCTV systems and the Data Protection Act JB v.5
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

(****) Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (CCTV and the Human Rights Act)
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/cctv13.htm

(*****) CCTV Guidance and the Data Protection Act - Good Practice Note
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=5740

>> Steve Mann, "MaybeCam"

http://www.eyetap.org/wearcam/maybecamera/:

WearCam concept: MaybeCam

The following are experiments that the writer has conducted and purposely taken to the extreme in order to (a) illustrate a point and (b) experience reactions and observations first hand. It is not likely that the average reader would go to these extremes but some more subtle variations of these experiments will still provide similar insight or reactions.

Maybe Camera

You cannot patent a mere "idea", but, rather, the idea must first be reduced to practice. Similarly, you cannot copyright an idea, it must first manifest itself as some tangible form. Conceptual art, however, provides us with a means where the idea itself is the contribution.

• Take one piece 1/8 inch black or dark acrylic, cut to 3 by 4 inches.
• Obtain a bulky sweatshirt in your size.

• For your protection, a video record of you and your establishment may be transmitted and recorded at remote locations.

  ALL CRIMINAL ACTS PROSECUTED

  Lay out the lettering so as to leave room for the acrylic between the words "locations" and "ALL" ("locations" to be at the end of one line of text, and "ALL" to begin the next line of text).
• Affix the acrylic securely to the shirt.
• Wear the completed shirt into a department store or other location where
  • video surveillance is used but
  • photography is prohibited (this criterion can be determined experimentally even before the shirt is made, by entering the proposed establishment with a 35mm camera or the like, and taking pictures within said establishment in a somewhat obvious manner).

The above piece is entitled "Maybe Camera --- Who's Paranoid?". Just as the customer doesn't know what's in the mysterious ceiling dome of wine-dark opacity, and must therefore be on his best behaviour at all times, so too, the shopkeeper doesn't know what's inside the customer's shirt, and likewise must be on his best behaviour at all times.

Probably Camera

Depending on the level of paranoia, if `Maybe-Camera...' is not "understood" by your audience, then perhaps the following conceptual/performance/reflectionist piece would be:

• Obtain one miniature (12 inches in diameter or smaller) ceiling dome of wine-dark opacity, together with a camera and pan-tilt-zoom mechanism suitable for that dome.
• Affix dome to backpack, facing backwards, cutting appropriate mounting hole in backback, leaving sufficient space, and installing appropriate housing for camera and pan-tilt-zoom mechanism. Leave the camera out for the time being.
• Insert a small battery powered computer equipped with video capture hardware, and means of controlling the function of the pan-tilt-zoom controls automatically.
• Insert into the pack, means of wireless communication to/from the Internet, or to/from an Internet gateway/server.
• Prepare software to allow the function of the apparatus to be controlled remotely via a WWW page, with ability to capture and display images from the camera if the camera is present. Make this WWW page world-accessible and known to various people around the world.
• Leave the work area and have someone else do the final assembly in your absence, according to the following instructions: Roll two dice, and:
  • If the total comes to two or three, insert into the dome a small light bulb, affixed to the pan-tilt-zoom sensor but connected to it in no way, together with sufficient ballast into the pack to make up the difference in weight between the bulb and the camera, so that the wearer could not determine this difference by weight.
  • If the dice total exceeds three, insert the camera, properly mounting it and connecting it to video digitizer. Verify its operation using a Web browser of your choice.
• Wear backpack together with shirt (`Maybe Camera...'), into a record store, preferably Tower Records, where ceiling domes of wine-dark opacity are used. If asked if it is a camera, or what it is, indicate that you're not certain, but point out the domes upon their ceiling and indicate the similarity, so that perhaps it could be a light fixture. (Security guards at Tower records have informed the author that their ceiling domes of wine-dark opacity are "light fixtures")

The above piece is called `Probably Camera --- Who's Paranoid?'. Probably Camera and Maybe Camera can be worn together of course, since one uses the front of the body, while the other uses the back.

No Camera

Dan Graham uses video time delay together with mirrors, etc., to create a delay between cause and effect. His video feedback involves both senses of the word "feedback": (1) the cameras "sees" the screen which is displaying the output from the camera, and (2) the users who see themselves on the screen adjust their behaviour according to this psychological "feedback". A conceptual piece, involving time-delay, to symbolize the disjointness between cause and effect that video recording creates is now described:

• Place pinhole camera and microphone into baseball cap, and record video from an establishment where photography, filming, and the like is strictly prohibited, but where video surveillance is used, and where there are documented cases of hidden cameras having been used. While recording video, talk to members of establishment, including manager. Ask whether or not they use video surveillance, and if so, why they are videotaping you without your permission. Ask what their "ceiling domes of wine-dark opacity" are, if any are present.
• Leave this establishment, and return with the following, but without the camera:
  • Flat-panel television screen affixed to shirt.
  • Source of previously recorded video material.
  • Means of switching between previously recorded material and standard broadcast television channels.
• Play the previously recorded video on the television screen, and if you are informed that photography, filming, or the like, is prohibited, indicate that there is NO CAMERA, and that what you are wearing is merely a television. Switch through the various channels, indicating that one of them (the one playing the previously recorded material) looks like it "must be a local channel --- a VERY local channel".

The piece is called `No Camera --- Who's Paranoid?'.

`My manager'

`My Manager', borrows from the Stellarc/Elsenaar tradition in performance art: not just that the author's `third eye' might be analogous to Stellarc's third hand, but, more importantly, that the body is controlled remotely. `My Manager' allows participants to, via Radio TeleTYpe (RTTY), become managers and remotely contribute to the creation of a documentary video in an environment under totalitarian surveillance (where photography, video, etc., other than by the totalitarian regime is prohibited). The artist is metaphorically a puppet on a "string" (to be precise, a puppet on a wireless data connection) who, for example, dutifully marches into the establishment in question, goes over to the stationery department, selects a pencil for purchase, and marches past the magazine rack without stopping to browse the magazines. In this example, he has been sent on an errand to purchase a pencil for a higher and unquestionable authority. When challenged by the department store's infrastructure, as to the purpose of the cameras he is wearing, the artist indicates that his manager requires him to wear the apparatus so that she can make sure that he does not stop and read magazines while he is performing errands on company time. Just as representatives in an organization absolve themselves of responsibility for their surveillance systems by blaming surveillance on managers or others higher up their official hierarchy, the artist absolves himself of responsibility for taking pictures of these representatives without their permission because it is the remote manager(s) together with the thousands of viewers on the World Wide Web who are taking the pictures. The subjects of the pictures, for example, department store managers, who had previously stated that "only criminals are afraid of video cameras", or that the use of video surveillance is beyond their control, either implicate themselves of their own accusations by showing fear in the face of a camera, or acknowledge the undesirable state of affairs that can arise from cameras that function as an extension of a higher and unquestionable authority. If their response is one of fear and paranoia, they are handed a form, entitled RFD (Request For Deletion) which they may use to make a request to have their pictures deleted from the artist's manager's database (they are informed the images have already been transmitted to the manager and cannot be deleted by the artist). The form asks them for name, social security number, and the reason for which they'd like to have their images deleted, and requests that they sign a section certifying that the reason is not one of concealing criminal activity, such as hiding the fact that their fire exits are illegally chained shut. Through `reflectionism' the department store attendant/representative sees himself/herself in the bureaucratic "mirror" created by the artist who is a puppet on a (wireless) "string". `My Manager' forces attendants/maintainers/supporters of the video `Surveillance Superhighway', with all of its rhetoric and bureaucracy, to realize or admit that they are "puppets" for a brief instant, and confront the reality of what their blind obedience leads to."