Surveillance and the City

Catalog description

This course examines the history and evolution of surveillance and counter-surveillance technologies from paper to computer encryption and from the door-to-door eavesdropping to world-scale internet monitoring, as well as its cultural consequences, from the defiance of the Soviet era to the emergence of hacker culture and modern European data regulation. In addition to discussions surrounding government control, privacy, transparency and secrecy, students will be confronted with the physicality of surveillance through site and museum visits, fieldwork, interventions and simulated scenarios. The course will therefore include a practical component as an introduction to surveillance, cryptography, privacy studies, hacker subcultures, web development and internet technology. Students will be introduced to the inner workings of the technical protocols and standards that power our modern media and interactive experiences, and how these new forms of media are used (and abused) in a creative and artistic way.