'Sentient City Survival Kit' lets citizens flirt with surveillance
By Daniel Nye Griffiths21 May 12

The city is watching you. CCTV cameras track your movements. ISPs record the web sites you visit. Police and governments might read your tweets -- or your emails. Your phone, your Oyster card and even your clothes might be disclosing information to chip-reading identity thieves. When the smart city takes an interest in your movements, how does the individual outsmart it?

This was the question Mark Shepard, former architect and fellow of New York's Eyebeam Arts and Technology Centre, had in mind when he created the Sentient City Survival Kit. The Kit, currently on show at the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival in Rotterdam, imagines street-level solutions for a near future of constant observation.

Shepard describes the kit as intended to "flirt with data algorithms" -- to retain some mystery and regain some power over monitoring technology. As we move through the city, we share information, often without even knowing it, with numerous systems -- CCTV setups, travelcard readers, mobile phone masts and many other digital spies.

Under(a)ware (pictured) is underwear designed to alert the wearer to RFID tag skimming by discreetly vibrating whenever they are scanned. The Ad Hoc (dark) Roast Network hides a wireless mesh network in the base of travel coffee mugs, allowing commuters to create a temporary, train-sized network on their morning journey, exchanging short messages with each other using a screen set into the lid. Of course, this could be used for nefarious purposes -- but so could speech, or writing. Not every communication needs to go through official channels.

Sometimes, especially in a CCTV-choked city like London, it's not your electronic signals that are being watched, but you. Cameras with night-vision capabilities can identify you and follow your movements. That's when the CCD-me-not Umbrella comes in handy. Its canopy is studded with infrared LED lights, activated by a button in the handle. Invisible to human eyes, they shine on night-vision CCD sensors like the sun, blinding the camera.

To round off the kit, Serendipitor is a playful way to navigate your city. While regular mobile phone maps provide directions for the shortest route, Serendipitor rewards meandering and adventuring. At every turn of its turn-by-turn instructions, it gives you a mission, which may lead you off your chosen route. You'll still get where you need to go, but your journey might take unexpected turns.

Cities are getting smarter , and the Sentient City Survival Kit is a reminder that they may not always have our best interests at heart.

The Sentient City Survival Kit is on display at the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival exhibition, Rotterdam, until 3 June. Sentient City: Ubiquitous Computing, Architecture, and the Future of Urban Space is published by MIT Press.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/21/surviving-in-the-sentient-city

-The opinions expressed are not necessarily an advocation of any of the aforementioned ideologies, concepts, or actions. We still have the freedom of speech, for now, and I enjoy using it in a satirical or ficticious manner to amuse myself.-

ΓÇ£In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.ΓÇ¥-- George Orwell
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'Sentient City Survival Kit' lets citizens flirt with
surveillance By Daniel Nye Griffiths21 May 12

The city is watching you. CCTV cameras track your
movements. ISPs record the web sites you visit. Police and
governments might read your tweets -- or your emails. Your

And the anonomizer sites won't help, because you still have to
go through your ISP to get to the anonomyizer site.

phone, your Oyster card and even your clothes might be
disclosing information to chip-reading identity thieves.
When the smart city takes an interest in your movements,
how does the individual outsmart it?

Make your own clothes. Don't carry IDs with chips. Which may
mean don't carry ID.

This was the question Mark Shepard, former architect and
fellow of New York's Eyebeam Arts and Technology Centre,
had in mind when he created the Sentient City Survival
Kit.

...

mobile phone masts and many other digital spies.

Oh, and turn off your phone when you aren't using it. Only have
a voice type phone that actually turns off, or use only a burn
phone, or pull out the battery when you are not using it.

Under(a)ware (pictured) is underwear designed to alert the
wearer to RFID tag skimming by discreetly vibrating
whenever they are scanned. The Ad Hoc (dark) Roast Network

Why is he smiling?

Cause he's getting vibrated by an RFID scanner.

Future porno.

hides a wireless mesh network in the base of travel coffee
mugs, allowing commuters to create a temporary,
train-sized network on their morning journey, exchanging
short messages with each other using a screen set into the
lid.

I kinda like that. Though just talking might not be bad too.

...

Sometimes, especially in a CCTV-choked city like London,
it's not your electronic signals that are being watched,
but you. Cameras with night-vision capabilities can
identify you and follow your movements. That's when the
CCD-me-not Umbrella comes in handy. Its canopy is studded
with infrared LED lights, activated by a button in the
handle. Invisible to human eyes, they shine on
night-vision CCD sensors like the sun, blinding the camera.

Not bad... but...

The very fact of the infra-red LED blinding will draw attention,
so you will be watched. The up-side is, if you work with a
group, the decoys turn on IR umbrellas, and the actual activists
escape notice.

That's something I have learned from listening to blaek people.
They tell of going into a store with some white friends. They
split up and the store security follows them while the white
friends steal them blind. Which then means the black people
realize they have been used and they find new white friends, but
that's the price of being friendly with white people.

Same thing with IR umbrellas, except that you self select
yourself to be a decoy. Unless someone gives, or lends, you an
umbrella on a damp night.

To round off the kit, Serendipitor is a playful way to
navigate your city. While regular mobile phone maps
provide directions for the shortest route, Serendipitor
rewards meandering and adventuring. At every turn of its
turn-by-turn instructions, it gives you a mission, which
may lead you off your chosen route. You'll still get where
you need to go, but your journey might take unexpected
turns.

OK, sounds like a new game. Could catch on.

Cities are getting smarter , and the Sentient City
Survival Kit is a reminder that they may not always have
our best interests at heart.

They may today, tomorrow someone else inherits the power.
Unfortunately, good intentions are not hereditary.

...


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... If the facts do not conform to the theory, they must be disposed of.
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Re: Messing with the Smart City (Flirting with Surveilance)
By: Damon A. Getsman to All on Wed Feb 13 2013 06:20 am

To round off the kit, Serendipitor is a playful way to navigate your city. While regular mobile phone maps provide directions for the shortest route, Serendipitor rewards meandering and adventuring. At every turn of its turn-by-turn instructions, it gives you a mission, which may lead you off your chosen route. You'll still get where you need to go, but your journey might take unexpected turns.

There's an app for the iPhone called CodeRunner where you play spy - you follow "suspects" on a map based on your location; it's a lot of fun if you have time for it. You mark locations as a "drop" by taking pictures of them and marking them on the map, and "downloading" information from other "agents".

It's a lot of fun.

I like the idea of Serendipitor. I'm getting just old enough that I'm getting set in my ways with regards to driving directions.
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