Steve Mann’s “Reflectionism” and “Diffusionism” essay was an interesting piece as it made me think about being on both sides of a video surveillance camera, the ones being watched and the ones doing the watching. It kind of makes you wonder about the whole “big brother is watching you” concept which is just disturbing. I do agree with Mann on many of his issues, however, some of the projects he carried out seemed to be a bit extreme. When Mann was describing all of the different types of video surveillance that we have today I was shocked because I had never heard of some of the inventions before. The idea of having a camera in your shower is disturbing because you really never know who is viewing the footage. It might be Vito Acconci. I cannot imagine having a world where cameras are placed everywhere and privacy, or freedom in Mann’s case, is dead. Although they can prevent things such as fraud and theft I don’t think that it’s worth being treated like prisoners.
I like Mann’s concept of “Reflectionism.” By turning the camera around on the businesses and the security guards, Mann turned them into one of us. Now they are the ones being watched and it was funny to read how uncomfortable they felt when they found out the camera was on them. I personally don’t bother to care for surveillance on customers however I do feel that it should be fair for both sides. It could be for similar reasons that they have cameras on us. If higher authority can force these forms of surveillance on us should there not be some sort of surveillance on them as well?
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