“Intelligence”: Image Blast!

Wow. I’ve got less than two weeks until install and I feel like I’m in a good place with the timing of it all. I’m going to tease you with photos!

You know those stickers I’ve been handing out? You can see them implanted into this cut that I did. They are the security eyeball and the surveillance man. This image is taken with no flash. The retroreflective vinyl is grey. Now watch what happens with the flash!

The vinyl picks up the light from the flash and bounces it back at you. This is the same material you see bright white at night on crosswalks and speed limit signs. Cool huh? Artists who work in the subject of privacy use it to ruin unwanted flash photos by making clothing and accessories out of retroreflective fabric. If you want a sticker, let me know. They are free before the show opens. I just ask one favor! Please help me get the word out about the show by sticking it on something, taking a non-flash and flash photo of it, and doing a social media blast with both images using the hashtags: #sueannerische, #datacollection, #privacy, and #intelligenceartshow. I see this as an art piece taking place on the internet: another recording and documenting of data.

The Faraday cage that will be in the center of the gallery is an 8x8x8 screened metal cage that will block your cell phone signal, giving you a break from being tracked. This is one of the wall sections that I made. Notice that the metal studs occur a little more frequently than a regular wall piece.

The floor will be covered in… wait for it…

…THIS BEAUTIFUL STUFF. It’s aluminum diamond plate and I bought it from King Architectural Metals. I just wanted to give them a shout out because I had an awesome experience there and I saved $400 by purchasing through them. Everyone was SO nice!

The cage will be covered in aluminum screen. You’re looking at 100 feet of it.

Heat lamps? Weird. What business do those have in an art show?

I’m also working on a sound piece that many of you have already participated in. THANK YOU. I’ve asked for 15 to 30 second clips of you whispering about the current mundane activity (like washing the dishes or staring at a phone) of a loved one or friend. You get to be the spy, reporting data to your overseer. Don’t think too hard about it! I’m not asking you to write a short, tightly edited poem! These should be raw, real-time observations. The whole process, including sending it to me, should take less than a minute. There’s your second opportunity to participate in an art show!

One new development! I’ve asked several people with different backgrounds to do a lecture series at the gallery while the show is on view. They won’t be so much “lectures” as they will be a casual chat between me and the other person about their personal take on privacy as well as how privacy is approached in their field. So far I have a data security professional, a philosophy professor, a communications professor, and I’m looking at having a police officer come talk as well. I’ve put the feelers out to several people so we’ll see who else bites! I’ll keep you posted with dates and times as soon as I have them.

If you have any questions about the goings on, please ask!

Love, privacy, and intelligence,

~S

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