Response 7: Steve Mann's "Reflectionism" and "Diffusionism"

I see Steve Mann’s piece, “Reflectionism” and “Diffusionism”: New Tactics for Deconstructing the Video surveillance Superhighway as a call for protest and revolution. Mann wants to protest the widespread use of surveillance cameras in public spaces, and he does so by using the same tactics against the companies that use surveillance cameras. This results, according to Mann, in Reflectionism, and forces those that use surveillance cameras to question how their cameras are used.

I found Mann’s piece to be highly amusing. As he describes his various project designs that challenge the policies of department stores and other places that use surveillance cameras, I could just picture the confused, flustered faces of the stores’ employees and security guards while they attempt to question and enforce the company’s policy at the same time. I really liked the “Shooting Back” example, in which Mann points his own camera at a store representative who had just stated, “Why are you so paranoid?” or “Only criminals are afraid of the cameras.” The store clerks are forced to feel the invasion of privacy the temporality that they shouldn’t be afraid of, for now they have to be on their best behavior because their words and actions are being recorded. Mann’s devices really put the spotlight back onto the “authority.”

And I especially liked the “My Manager” example because Mann does almost the exact same thing the stores’ employees do when they are questioned about the surveillance cameras. When challenged, Mann just tells the store’s employees that it’s company policy to wear the uniform to prevent employees from reading magazines on company time. And what really brings it home is Mann’s remark to the employee, “I trust you, and I know you would never falsely accuse me of shoplifting, but my manager is really paranoid, and she thinks shopkeepers are out to get her employees by falsely accusing them of shoplifting.” With their own words thrown back at them, the store’s security guards are left trying to figure out whether they should enforce their own company’s policy or blindly accepting the mandate of another “higher authority.” And while doing so, the store employees are confronted with the issue of their own blind obedience.