Activism Through Art - Privacy

Privacy is one of the most important feelings and rights that every human should have, whether it be at home or in school or in a bathroom. I found some interesting projects that deal with securing privacy.

One project I found interesting has to be The Surveillance Camera Players, just because the topic of privacy is still relevant and made stronger today. The group of these Players were founded in 1996 in NYC to protest the invasion of privacy by the government. More specifically, they try to remove the myth that those who are afraid of being on camera are those who are guilty of doing something. This myth is unsettling because it is true for certain instances in which some police officers, who claim their “body cams” suddenly turned off, brutally murder or injure their victims, who are prominently African American. This project represents public space well because even though public spaces are considered to be “public”, they can never truly be that way for as long as the government has cameras set up. People have also said that the government can even spy on those who have their webcams open on their laptops or through their phones’ front cameras. In the various images Rakowitz took, people had posters covering nearly all of themselves or the space the camera looked at for the shot.

They know there are actual people behind the cameras.

Another project that somewhat touches upon privacy is the Yes Men. They've been known to cause havoc among huge companies, and even cost the DOW about $2 billion in stock losses. While The Surveillance Camera Players try to advocate for better privacy rights, the Yes Men expose and reveal shady practices among businessmen, and sometimes these people don't realize what they're doing. The Yes Men create ridiculous costumes and projects, such as the Management Leisure Suit and Breakaway Leisure Suit. They have several documentaries that showcase their thought processes behind their pranks and expose the businessmen and their practices. In class, we watched one of their documentaries and realized how people are willing to risk lives just to make money. It's an ugly practice, and no human life should be taken just to create profit.

One of the Yes Men impersonates a representative from DOW on BBC News. Shortly after this announcement, the DOW lost billions of dollars in stock.

Another activist, or rather, hacktivist that has done whistleblowing against the U.S. is Edward Snowden. There is a movie made about him (portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and it dramatizes his exposure of illegal mass surveillance by the National Security Agency. At the moment, Snowden is under asylum in Russia, one of the places he has stayed for so long since the U.S. revoked his passport. During his time with the NSA, Snowden learns that the U.S. has not just been the "Big Brother" watching over their own countries, but rather in others too. Should any allies turn their backs on the U.S., the country has already planted malware in several sectors of those countries and will shut them down effectively. It's a scary thought to realize that this country is involved with other countries in such a malicious way, but Snowden has brought it to light and we know more about it than we ever had.

Side by side comparison of Levitt from the movie and Snowden himself, who makes a cameo in it.