Closed Circuit TV and Individuation

S urveil lanc e & S oc iety C C T V Spec ial (eds. Nor r is, Mc Cahill and Wood) 2(2/ 3): 136-14 4 http:/ / www.sur veill anc e-and-s oc iety .or g/ cctv. htm ©2004 S urveil lanc e & S oc iety a nd the a utho r(s ). A ll r ights res erv ed. IS S N: 1477 -74 87 CCT V and (In )dividuat ion H eat her Camer on 1 Abst rac t This essay draws on work of Freud and Foucault to understand emerging converging aspects of visual surveillance and tracking technology. It discusses so me of the gene ral p ro blems wi th video su rveilla nce – due to its reliance on a flattened version of the visual realm, its part ial vie w, and assumptio ns about human vision. It then moves on to show how CCTV has changed from the monitoring of flows to identifying individuals and functioning as the human interface for new databank applications, using Foucault’s reflection s on governmental ity. The es say en ds by detailing a co ntroversial test o f video surveillan ce and RFID tags which point out some new dangers for us to consider, and argues that we should resist the ‘flat fantasy’ offered by video surveillance. Photographs and video images provide an apparently direct human interface to surveillance databases. Database records c an be very detailed and useful but without photographs or video images it is much more difficult for a person to identify the target of the records. A passport number may identify a person quicker to a machine, but the photograph is the usual reference for the border patrol guard. Facial photography and video f ootage are preferred for human pr oc es si ng o ve r ot he r vi su al r ef er en ce s l ik e a fi ng er pr in t or ir is scan. Ho we ve r, h um an m at ch in g capabilities between photos and people have been repeatedly shown to be lacking. The work of Freud and Foucault can be used to understand emerging converging aspects of visual surveillance and tracking technology. In the following I will first discuss some of the general pr ob le ms w it h vi deo su rv ei ll an ce d ue t o it s r el ia nc e on a fl at te ne d ve rs ion of t he v is ua l re al m an d assumptions about human vision. Second, I discuss how CCTV has changed from the monitoring of flows to identifying individuals and functioning as the human interface for new databank applications. Foucault ’s reflectio ns on gover nmentality and producing and tracking of individuals will i ntroduce this theme. I will end by detailing a controversial test of video surveillance and RFID tags which point out some new dangers for us to consider. One risk with the self evidence of video surveillance is that one partial view will be taken as the True view. Even when the public has gained the media literacy to question the reliability of pho tog ra phs to acc ur ate ly dep ic t a sc ene , vid eo sur vei ll ance seems to hav e esc ape d thi s 1 Centre for Technology and Society, Technical University of Berlin, mailto:[email protected]

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Closed Circuit TV and Individuation