Fuel – Rondebosch

R – UCT

Twilight Robbery – UCT

Emergency Police Hotline – UCT

Infini-loo 2

So, after numerous attempts, rewrites, tears and at least one near-fatal nite spent on the roof of the house in a howling South-easterly gale I have finally completed and submitted my entry for this year’s Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

Herewith the opening sentence of the soon to be rejected suburban-noir novel ‘Memoirs of a Slut: The Valley Years’.

She never put out on the first date of the day, but he knew that this might change when he saw her saunter into the hotel lounge wearing those oh-baby-oh diamante pumps he had heard so much about.

All that remains now is to await the sweet sound of the postman carrying a very large parcel.

Everyone’s favourite protest artist, Banksy, takes a serious look at surveillance in his work. Most of the images below are his.
I remember reading and hearing about the level of surveillance in London for some time[1], but only when I visited the city last year did I fully appreciate just how extensive the network of cameras in the city centre is.

To tell the truth I wasn’t reelly surprised by the pervasiveness of these devices in London; sobered, yes – but not surprised[2].
Government surveilence isn’t new and systems like Carnivore and Echelon now come close to rivalling the Wal-Mart data warehouse(ha ha).
The cameras deployed throughout zones 1 and 2 might be a concern from a privacy point of view, but they’re not the real looming danger.

As always, Banksy sees the reality.

Banksy – Monolith

Everything2 says that a surveillance culture is ‘a cultural climate featuring the normalization of constant surveillance by agencies public and/or private’.
It’s a good definition and identifies the major players in this present/future drama, but it’s not so much the ‘constant surveillance’ or the ‘agencies’ that is of interest, it’s the ‘normalization’.

Banksy – What are you looking at?

The normalisation of being recorded.

Here’s my prediction; in the coming years we’ll see the rise of a surveillance culture that is held to be normal and positive and is driven by consumers (not agencies). This culture will take its place alongside celebrity, lifestyle, millenial, globalisation and genX cultures as defining a generation and a time when it became normal to be recorded.

Banksy – Surveillance Pirates

The coming surveillance culture will be sold to the public in the same way that lifestyle culture has been sold; by framing it as a positive action that each of us takes toward improving our quality of life.
Never mind fighting international terrorism – wouldn’t you want the peace of mind of knowing where your children are?

Childcare centers across the nation hear “thank you” everyday from Moms and Dads who take advantage of the value and convenience of KinderCam.

KinderCam is the industry leader in childcare viewing systems, and our state-of-the-art camera systems allows parents an effective way to see their child from home or work.

Kindercam

AT LEAST YOU KNOW WHERE THEY ARE
When children are playing, they are not always paying attention to the time, where they are or the dangers around them. As a parent you are not always in a position to keep a close eye on your child and where they may be playing. This can leave parents with a feeling of unease and discomfort.

Children need to have a sense of independency and trust from their parents in order to grow into responsible individuals. By taking advantage of the GPS technology within i-Kids, parents can now keep a close eye on their children.

i-Kids

Surveillance culture is not something that will be forced on us by Patriot act wielding suits or riot gear wearing grunts – we’ll build this Panopticon ourselves with cute and colourful devices that let us watch our homes, cars, family, pets and plants.

But this horror futurescape doesn’t upset me[3] because it is nothing more than humanity’s next babel – religious fanaticism, facism, consumerism – for eons we’ve been building our own cages in a romanticised image of our beautiful world.
This doesn’t bother me – it’s a natural reality.
There are other things related to privacy that really scare me – but we’ll get there.

Banksy – England Pastoral

[1] The last statistic I heard is that the average London tourist is photographed in the region of 300 times a day.
[2] At some point I’ll slap down some wurds on my take on information gathering vs. privacy.
[3] As much as some other things do

Update: here’s a another one – Spot.

Right now we are need deep in two all-consuming mega trends: Lifestyle lives and Celebrity culture.

These have been around for milenia[1] but seem to be reaching a zenith in offering a complete solution to the unlived life.
No more need to carry around religious or patriarchal guilt – be free!
Choose and live a Lifestyle and worship the celebrities who have chosen and are living theirs.

The Hilton Lifestyle – ass and sofa’s
The Lohand Lifestyle – bikini’s and boobjobs
The Tomkat Lifestyle – glamour and control	More Tomkat Lifestyle – family and control

What blows my mind about these two phenomena are that they come into existence simply by choice.
When you choose a lifestyle, say the sensitive outdoorsman and weekend 4×4 explorer, it magically becomes a reality in your life.
No need to actually go out into the wilds and explore – just make the choice, have the gear, be proud to claim it and live the lifestyle.
The same thing with celebrities.
No more need to work for recognition – just be seen, be chosen by the camera’s eye. Celebrity has been bestowed upon you – live the lifestyle.

And why can we not now be our own celebrities living our own megastar lifestyles?
Lifestyle photography, lifestyle media centers, lifestyle dentistry.

Lifestyle Mainimage	Lifestyle Laughter
Your Lifestyle	Lifestyle Media

And these two realities[2] have now combined to offer the consumer of today another option – aspirational living.
Don’t even bother to live a lifestyle – you can simply aspire to live it.
Aspire to live your life, aspire to live their lives.

[1] there’s an case to be made that Moses was the first celebrity recorded in the Judeo-Christian tradition
[2] or rather, pseudo-realities.

Autumn has arrived in just the last few days – Monday actually.
There’s a distinct change in the air in the mornings and evenings.

We’ve had a fantastic Summer (relatively wet, not too windy) and I am reminded of how I feel the same way about the major seasons every year.
Towards the end of one season, say Winter, it gets to where I’ve just had enough of it and count the daily increments toward Spring. At the end of summer the same thing – counting the indications that Autumn and Winter are closing in.

Somehow I thought that because this year’s Summer has been such a good one that I wouldn’t despair of its continuing – and I haven’t.
But when, on Monday morning, I recognised the Autumn air I was glad to have it return.

Welcome Autumn and Winter! It’ll be wet and cold and dark, but on some nites the silent fog will roll in from the sea.