Uberveillance Article

Here are some words I coined the other night with response to the invitation by Katina and M.G Michael to write to where Uberveillance sits for me at present: Uberveillance - Article Introduction Alexander Hayes Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 11:51 AM To: Katina Michael Hi Katina, I am highly conscious that I have not had an opportunity to converse with you further about the Uberveillance publication. I've spent a few hours now composing some simple words to begin to define what motivated me to create a visual symbol to represent Uberveillance. Here is my beginnings. --------------------------------------------------- Uberveillance. I first came across the seemingly ambiguous term in a Sydney Morning Herald online news article in mid 2009. As if by divine co-incidence, shortly after I met Associate Professor Katina Michael and M. G. Micheal at the inaugural AUPOV09 Conference hosted in Wollongong, NSW Australia. The conversation since has compelled me to reflect on the core ramifications that the concept of Uberveillance has for humanity. In an immediate sense the conversations ensuing have also compelled me to consider as a contemporary segway the concept of Uberveillance as a feature within my own research focus. My PhD. at the University of Wollongong examines the implications for the Australian education sector rushing headlong into the use of wearable point-of-view (PoV) technologies, particularly considering those PoV technologies which are geo-location enabled. This latter specificity has prompted me to consider the mercurial attributes that constitute that of Uberveillance, of it's composites, present realities and future states. uberveillance (say 'oohbuhvayluhns) noun. an omnipresent electronic surveillance facilitated by technology that makes it possible to embed surveillance devices in the human body. M.G. Michael and K. Michael (2009). "Uberveillance: Definition" in ed. S. Butler, Fifth Edition of the Macquarie Dictionary (Australia's National Dictionary, Sydney University), p. 1094 Readings of journals, news articles and open public comment which expound upon this definition were summarised in a chapter entry I shared with other fellow colleagues recently; "An embodiment of all veillances, in totallity, is Uberveillance. In Becoming, at it's core, an apex of composites - a triquetra - that of surveillance and all it's nuances, that of dataveillance and its multitude of feeds and that of sousveillance with it's manifestations of recalcitrance....." Interestingly the term 'triquetra' has structural conotations that brings together the considerations for where the core or apex point forms a new space, an intersection composed of attributes of all three domains. Triquetra (pronounced /traɪˈkwɛtrə/) is a noun derived from the Latin tri- ("three") and quetrus ("cornered"). Its original meaning was simply "triangle" and it has been used to refer to various three-cornered shapes. Nowadays, it has come to refer exclusively to a particular more complicated shape formed of three vesicae piscis, sometimes with an added circle in or around it. This has been used as a religious symbol of things and persons that are threefold. ( ref. Wikpedia) On a seemingly esoteric or mythical level I have alluded to this apex point as in a state of the already present, which parralells my own thoughts on Uberveillance as it rapidy evolves in many differing areas of industry, community and nationhood. The suggestive interweaving of the Pagan Triquetra turns this three sided shape into a multi-dimensional form, seemingly with no begining or end point, not dissimilar to the undening affinity symbol. To better understand these composites and related dependencies I have brought to a visualisation that of a simple moniker which now serves as the header image at http://www.uberveillance.com. The following describes the process that I employed to fuse Uberveillance at the apex of these related domains -surveillance, sousveillance and dataveillance and the reasons why I selected the tiquetra symbol as the foundation underpinning Uberveillance as a three dimensional form. A discussion with M.G. Michael and Katina Michael on the 19th Octobr 2010 led to a consideration of Uberveillance in the context of set associatives. Katina identified the following: * Uberveillance {Surveillance, Dataveillance, Sousveillance} * Power Set {}, {Surveillance}, {Dataveillance}, {Sousveillance}, {Surveillance Dataveillance}, {Surveillance Sousveillance}, {Dataveillance Sousveillance}, {Surveillance Dataveillance Sousveillance} * Note - for explanation purposes "{}" is the empty set-- i.e., a given instance is NOT surveillance, not dataveillance and not sousveillance... thus it does not constitute uberveillance in any way. The interrogation of meaning using a set theory pre-supposes an ability to interspace content, behaviours, inter-dependencies and knowledge of all three domains. Bringing these three domains together, each body of meaning in it's entirety, integrally drawing together common cultural dialectics and referential interdependencies and other overlaps lends itself simply to that of set theory - three overlapping circles, each circle denoting a difference. Now, in your own minds eye picture three seperate visual objects - circles. * Circle 1 - represents and is labelled 'surveillance' ( ref. Wikipedia ) * Circle 2 - represents and is labelled 'sousveillance' ( ref. Steve Mann ) * Circle 3 - represents and is labelled 'dataveillance '( ref. Roger ) In reality, in each of these are undeniably interrelated so lets overlap all three circles so that they form a triangular apex or central triquetra within which the overlap has formed a new space - the 'U' . Uberveillance cannot exist without the co-dependent relationship that all three domains bring to existence. Whilst derivative of a surveillant motivation, the magnitude of uberveillance lies within the explicit connotation that these three overlapping domains support a state of uberveillance. In this state, humanity has reached a point where the boundaries of technologies are both an internal ecology interdependent on an external network that some coin as 'singularity'.

The Birth Of A Word

Just trying to find a medium to say the same things that have meaning for me as it does for those on TED.

Zion Eyez

[ image : screencapture - zioneyez ]

I've just composed a message to say hello to the ZionEyez development team in the hope that I can connect Streamfolio ( as Operation Manager ) with what appears to be an interesting development.

Everyone's aware of my build for EDUTechStock and what we currently market. I'm keen to know if these ZionEyeZ devices will:

• be GPS chipset
• be mobile device interoperable
• be constructed from robust plastics
• will have any weather resistance
• will have a return's policy other than user-pays post replacement
• will substantially more robust than the current camera glasses we stock

The associations with social media are obvious. The implications for the use of these in an education sector may not be so apparent.

I'm hoping my contact form gets answered.

Thinking About The Network

Today I've let go with a few comments in a TALO thread which have me thinking about the network. Both comments are in response to Leigh Blackall's attempt to get a social media course up and running in his role at ANU.

I'll often fire off a comment in the haste of other online duties and then upon re-read reflection wonder where they came from or in fact if it was actually me writing. For instance:

"....It reminds of what museums are for...here's what your looking at......here is what you are experiencing....here is what we are telling you occurred and is occurring  in absence of the "real" thing.....here are the things to do .......point by point...step by step......"

Better provide some context:

"...The relational aesthete places the audience within the process of completion of the picture. Social media places educators as simply another user agitating others to think for themselves amongst the blinding obvious interrogations for the unseen algorithms of interaction."

I can hear my Art Theory Lecturer Julian Goddard circa 1997 at Curtin University in there. I can hear a multitude of more recent ghostly voices washing through with the next comment:

"...I also feel that social media is comprised of more than just users...it involves developers, marketers, analysts and networked consortiums intentions. The sooner that educators get a grasp on the ethical and moral trajectories ( or lack of ) that underpin the motivations of those mentioned afore then the sooner educators would realise the implications of using such tools as part of their arsenal of number crunching and professional baby-sitting."

More ramblings located here.

Travel Weary

I should have been getting on a plane this morning rising at 5:30am amidst the early morning chirps of the last of the finches that frequent the front yard.

It is a 15 minute drive to the airport and as long to wait to get on board and travel a further 30 mins to land in Sydney airport. I seriously cant complain about how easy it is to go from rural NSW Australia to the heartlands of the "big smoke"....and yet, with a sore head I cancelled this mornings flight.

Battling a head cold from hell I've decided to stay virtual for work this week.

I had been hoping to catch up with Katina Michael, UOW Supervisor in Wollongong tonight as planned but it is not possible so it looks like it will happen next week. Some of the things needing dialogue around are:

 

1. Timetable - how to fit this in amongst the cacophony of life
2. AUPOV11 - we need to get it started with a commitment to connect the funding dots
3. Ethics - I need to post something soon that makes sense for both Katina and Bill Wade to make sense of about the proposed CDU research trial site
4. Focus - best efforts are being thwarted by interruptions...how to remain focussed amongst challenges in the Streamfolio business
5. Uberveillance chapter - again something that simply needs writing from the heart to start

 

This is a beginning at least in that process. Oh how I wished I had learned to type in highschool. Ah well.....no need to look back, just time to look forward and even sit still occasionally would help.

Back to the bookwork for a while.