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Appropriating Video Surveillance for Art and Environmental Awareness: Experiences from ARTiVIS

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Abstract

Arts, Real-Time Video and Interactivity for Sustainability (ARTiVIS) is an ongoing collaborative research project investigating how real-time video, DIY surveillance technologies and sensor data can be used as a tool for environmental awareness, activism and artistic explorations. The project consists of a series of digital contexts for aesthetic contemplation of nature and civic engagement, aiming to foster awareness and empowerment of local populations through DIY surveillance. At the core of the ARTIVIS efforts are a series of interactive installations (namely B-Wind!, Hug@tree and Play with Fire), that make use of surveillance technologies and real-time video as raw material to promote environmental awareness through the emotion generated by real-time connections with nature. Throughout the project development, the surveillance concept has been shifting from the use of surveillance technology in a centralized platform, to the idea of veillance with distributed peer-to-peer networks that can be used for science and environmental monitoring. In this paper we present the history of the ARTiVIS project, related and inspiring work, describe ongoing research work and explore the present and future challenges of appropriating surveillance technology for artistic, educational and civic engagement purposes.

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Notes

  1. United Nations, International Year of Forests. http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fact_Sheet_IYF.pdf.

  2. Microdrones. http://www.microdrones.com/en/applications/areas-of-application/monitoring/.

  3. Griffins nest at Portas de Ródão, Portugal http://www.publico.pt/ecosfera/grifos.

    Bats cave at Alviela, Portugal http://www.publico.pt/ecosfera/morcegos.

    Eagles Cross Borders project, Estonia and Latvia http://pontu.eenet.ee/player/kalakotkas.html.

  4. “Timecode” in IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0220100/.

  5. “Alice” in IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459072/.

  6. “Look” in IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810951/.

  7. In "'Person of Interest': TV review", Los Angeles Times, by Mary McNamara (2011). http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/22/entertainment/la-et-person-interest-20110922.

  8. “'Person Of Interest' Creator Jonathan Nolan Isn’t Paranoid—Or Is He?", by Susan Karlin (2012). http://www.fastcocreate.com/1679107/person-of-interest-creator-jonathan-nolan-isnt-paranoid-or-is-he.

  9. SurveillanceSaver. http://i.document.m05.de/?page_id=438.

  10. Installation at ARCO Contemporary Art Fair 2007, Vera Cortez Agência de Arte, Madrid.

  11. In “Book review: Design Activism—Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World”, comments by Ann Thorpe, design activism 2010. http://designactivism.net/archives/227.

  12. COP15—15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Copenhagen, December 7–18, 2009.

  13. COP16—16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Cancún, Nov. 19–Dec. 10, 2010.

  14. 350 eARTh—Using art to spark a climate change movement. http://art.350.org/earth_earth/.

  15. Talking Tree (2010) EOS Magazine, Happiness Brussels. http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/20/talking-tree-communicates-with-the-world-via-facebook-and-twitte/.

  16. In “'Golden Nica, Prize of the Ars Electronica, for Pollstream", by Luminapolis (2008). http://luminapolis.com/en/2008/06/ars-electronica-preis-fur-pollstream/.

  17. Panel at Ars Electronica 2010. http://www.aec.at/repair/en/program/repair-the-environment/.

  18. Sustainable Futures: finding solutions at the Design Museum—Can design really make a difference? http://de.phaidon.com/agenda/design/events/2010/march/31/sustainable-futures-finding-solutions-at-the-design-museum/.

  19. Camp Pixelache Helsinki. http://www.pixelache.ac//camp12/programme/call-for-proposals-demos/.

  20. http://artivis.net.

  21. http://diy.artivis.net.

  22. Hug@ree “10/10/10 Global Work Party” in 350.org. http://archive.350.org/hugree.

  23. http://airpi.es.

  24. http://safecast.org.

  25. http://blitzortung.org.

  26. http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardYun.

  27. http://vocore.io.

  28. https://nurdspace.nl/ESP8266.

  29. https://www.thingspeak.com.

  30. http://www.mediasense.se.

  31. http://www.nimbits.com.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/42555/2007 and SFRH/BD/518481/2012) and the UT Austin|Portugal Program for funding this research and creating a stimulating and supportive research environment. We would also like to thank the AZ Labs network, constituted by LCD, altLab, and xDA. These media labs have been crucial to the development and implementation of the interactive installations accomplished in the scope of this research. We would like to thank Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute for providing material and research support for the HCI research performed during this project. We thank Ângela Pereira, Susana Nascimento and Alexandre Pólvora, European Commission Joint Research Centre—Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen—for providing us with the opportunity to share our work in what was a novel context for us and to connect with other researchers interested in the civic application of surveillance technology.

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Mendes, M., Ângelo, P., Correia, N. et al. Appropriating Video Surveillance for Art and Environmental Awareness: Experiences from ARTiVIS. Sci Eng Ethics 24, 947–970 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9762-5

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