As if Britain isn’t jammed with enough CCTV cameras as it is, government officials conceded that in the not-so-distant future, they’ll be deploying an all encompassing surveillance blanket of untold proportions. In addition to fitting cameras with facial recognition technology and placing them in cabs, the Home Office will use unmanned spy drones to keep a watchful eye on the citizenry, but will only do so for their own good, not to be intrusive.
England’s tradition of highly aggressive Big Brother intrusion is long and storied, but continues to evolve. No longer content with watching every move of its citizenry via a highly advanced surveillance blanket of CCTV cameras, authorities now want to inspect nostrills too. And with the cocaine torch they can. For the past few months, real life Adam Sutlers have been testing partygoers outside nightclubs with the special ultra violet detection device. If your face lights up green, your guilty and police can then search you. The solution? Drink Red Bull. |BBC|
Adding to the already offensive onslaught of Orwellian surveillance, the BBC is reporting that a national network of license plate reading cameras will soon be in place across England. And like the United States, police forces have placed innocent old anti-war activists on a “hotlist,” one of whom was pulled over by an “anti-terror unit” while motoring through London and presumably munching on granola. |BBC|
A German company offers this birdhouse styled like a common surveillance camera. “The model is called ‘Wolfgang S.’ a reference to the hawkish German Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schauble who likes spying on everyone in the name of security. |Boing Boing|
As officials in London try to figure out who owns the wall that street artist Banksy painted his CCTV piece on, the British media darling chimed in on the brewing controversy. He doesn’t want his art classified as an ad, regardless of how it will affect the mural, releasing a statement to Time mag: “I was offended when Westminster said my painting was an advertisement. Advertising makes people feel inadequate and worthless. Graffiti doesn’t do that. Graffiti doesn’t emotionally blackmail you, graffiti doesn’t make you feel fat and graffiti doesn’t make you rush out and buy things, except maybe high strength cleaning products.” He also argued that his work isn’t the eyesore in this case. “I don’t know what next door is complaining about—their building is so ugly the ‘No Trespassing’ sign reads like an insult.”
Unlike the murals he outsourced here in NYC, most of Banksy’s work in London is illegal and done by the artist himself. And while the city council in his hometown of Bristol voted to preserve his work, officials in London aren’t as supportive. They’re planning on buffing his high profile CCTV piece to “send a message” to the city’s vandals, although it’s more likely motivated by the content of the piece. There’s only one problem though, until they locate the owner of the property, no action can be taken. |Londonist|
No matter how you feel about BANKSY’S work—hate it, love it, indifferent—you have to give him credit for finding new and innovative ways to pull of large scale vandalism without getting caught. Although London is one of the most heavy surveilled cities in the world with more CCTV cameras per square inch than anywhere on the planet, the street painting denizen was able to pull of this massive ode to Big Brother: “One nation under CCTV.” To make it happen, he had to erect scaffolding under the watchful eye of the camera and paint under the cover provided by a sheet of polythene. |Telegraph|
Photo: Getty/AFP
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