Controversial Artist Matches Influencer Photos With Surveillance Footage (smithsonianmag.com) 30
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Smithsonian Magazine: It's an increasingly common sight on vacation, particularly in tourist destinations: An influencer sets up in front of a popular local landmark, sometimes even using props (coffee, beer, pets) or changing outfits, as a photographer or self-timed camera snaps away. Others are milling around, sometimes watching. But often, unbeknownst to everyone involved, another device is also recording the scene: a surveillance camera. Belgian artist Dries Depoorter is exploring this dynamic in his controversial new online exhibit, The Followers, which he unveiled last week. The art project places static Instagram images side-by-side with video from surveillance cameras, which recorded footage of the photoshoot in question.
To make The Followers, Depoorter started with EarthCam, a network of publicly accessible webcams around the world, to record a month's worth of footage in tourist attractions like New York City's Times Square and Dublin's Temple Bar Pub. Then he enlisted an artificial intelligence (A.I.) bot, which scraped public Instagram photos taken in those locations, and facial-recognition software, which paired the Instagram images with the real-time surveillance footage. Depoorter calls himself a "surveillance artist," and this isn't his first project using open-source webcam footage or A.I. Last year, for a project called The Flemish Scrollers, he paired livestream video of Belgian government proceedings with an A.I. bot he built to determine how often lawmakers were scrolling on their phones during official meetings. "On its face, The Followers is an attempt, like many other studies, art projects and documentaries in recent years, to expose the staged, often unattainable ideals shown in many Instagram and influencer photos posted online," writes Smithsonian's Molly Enking. "But The Followers also tells a darker story: one of increasingly worrisome privacy concerns amid an ever-growing network of surveillance technology in public spaces. And the project, as well as the techniques used to create it, has sparked both ethical and legal controversy."
Depoorter told Vice's Samantha Cole that he got the idea when he "watched an open camera and someone was taking pictures for like 30 minutes." He wondered if he'd be able to find that person on Instagram.
To make The Followers, Depoorter started with EarthCam, a network of publicly accessible webcams around the world, to record a month's worth of footage in tourist attractions like New York City's Times Square and Dublin's Temple Bar Pub. Then he enlisted an artificial intelligence (A.I.) bot, which scraped public Instagram photos taken in those locations, and facial-recognition software, which paired the Instagram images with the real-time surveillance footage. Depoorter calls himself a "surveillance artist," and this isn't his first project using open-source webcam footage or A.I. Last year, for a project called The Flemish Scrollers, he paired livestream video of Belgian government proceedings with an A.I. bot he built to determine how often lawmakers were scrolling on their phones during official meetings. "On its face, The Followers is an attempt, like many other studies, art projects and documentaries in recent years, to expose the staged, often unattainable ideals shown in many Instagram and influencer photos posted online," writes Smithsonian's Molly Enking. "But The Followers also tells a darker story: one of increasingly worrisome privacy concerns amid an ever-growing network of surveillance technology in public spaces. And the project, as well as the techniques used to create it, has sparked both ethical and legal controversy."
Depoorter told Vice's Samantha Cole that he got the idea when he "watched an open camera and someone was taking pictures for like 30 minutes." He wondered if he'd be able to find that person on Instagram.
You want those cameras public (Score:2, Insightful)
one of increasingly worrisome privacy concerns amid an ever-growing network of surveillance technology in public spaces
Here's the thing, you cannot stop the spread of those cameras. Anyone in any building can put up a camera if they like.
The fact that anyone can access that feed is something you should TREASURE, not be worried about. The real thing to worry about is if all those cameras are dark to the public, and only viewable by the state.
The continued spread of public video feeds ensures that everyone
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That's like saying "you can't stop the spread of murders, so you want every kid to have a gun."
Rule of law, perhaps you've heard?
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That's like saying "you can't stop the spread of murders, so you want every kid to have a gun."
Yes, and?
But realistically - every teacher should be armed, if they are not you don't actually care about children.
Rule of law, perhaps you've heard?
And that relates to cameras how? If I can see things outside a building I own, why would it ever be illegal to put a camera that can see the same things. And I can write a social media post on what I saw, so why should it be illegal to make a camera, looking out on
Where To Watch (Score:3)
Sounds like a powerful commentary on Surveillance, AI, and Social Media (including also a little does of "behind the scenes" reality). This truly is art.
Is there a Youtube channel or something where I can watch it? I want to watch this watcher.
Re:Where To Watch (Score:5, Informative)
Followers has also hit some legal snags since going live. The project was originally up on YouTube, but EarthCam filed a copyright claim, and the piece has since been taken down. Depoorter tells Hyperallergic that he’s attempting to resolve the claim and get the videos re-uploaded. (The project is still available to view on the official website and the artist’s Twitter).
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Pff... you didn't even have to read the article, you just had to click the link for it. It is plain as day.
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marketing.
marketing is applied story telling.
creating an image in ones mind is a part of story telling.
marketing is a tool used by influencers to make bank.
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Sure, but before we proceed please fill in this short survey from Google...
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Yes, I've just taken a look at Earthcam.com, and sure enough, you can rewind the footage. So his "AI bot" actually just continually scrapes the GPS and timestamps of all the new photos from a curated selection of Instagram influencers.
When the GPS coordinates of the photo match the coordinates of an Earthcam.com camera, the Instagram scraping bot sends Dries Depoorter an alert. He can then manually rewind the footage and record it.
That would explain why his website only shows 4 different people - each examp
You keep using that word (Score:5, Interesting)
"But The Followers also tells a darker story: one of increasingly worrisome privacy concerns amid an ever-growing network of surveillance technology in public spaces.
By definition, if you are in a public space you have no privacy. It doesn't matter that cameras are watching you. It could just as easily be the strangers around you or the police. You are in a public space where anyone can see you and in the current case, that is the intent.
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Someone sees me at a place?
No issue.
Someone follows me everywhere I go, stand outside my apartment all day long and follow me when I go out?
That sounds like a stalker to me.
So, you're missing the point.
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That sounds like a stalker to me.
Only because you don't know what stalking is. Here's the definition:
intentional, repeated following of a person for the purpose of harassing the person with express or implied threats of violence or death
Following you isn't enough to be a stalker. The bar to jump is harassment. Good luck proving you're being harassed by a security camera in a public space that, and this is the important bit, doesn't actually follow you around, and wasn't set up specifically to track you.
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That's not the usual US definition of stalking, which only requires that the target of stalking (reasonably) fear injury.
The act of harassing another person in a threatening or aggressive manner causing fear. [legaldictionary.net]
the act or crime of willfully and repeatedly following or harassing another person in circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to fear injury or death [merriam-webster.com] especially because of express or implied threats
Other countries have somewhat different laws [wikipedia.org], which are often broader than the US definitions above.
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Take such an example for instance - you're speaking with a friend in a public place and you notice a stranger listening in. You move out of earshot, but the stranger follows, obviously watching you. That's not "all well and good in a public place", but harassment.
Fame (Score:2)
If you pursue fame, you shouldn't complain when you achieve it.
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That and specifically tag/advertise your locations.
So what? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Who actually cares about these losers on Instagram? Am I just out of touch?
You should care because other people do. It is important to see and understand what others are exposed to as it is these other people, people continuously lied to who have their realities distorted, that may have a direct impact on your life.
I couldn't give a crap about attention whores on Instagram either, but I'm not callous enough to pretend they aren't a problem which affect society, especially when said problem gets around advertisement laws and does things such as directly advertising vaping, smoking,
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Generally speaking, advertising is a heavily regulated industry. "Influencer" is just another word for "promoter" or "advertiser". The key difference is that "Influencer" is generally someone who doesn't make an ad for a broadcast medium like television, billboards, radio or other thing, but for "followers", giving it a viral "word of mouth" feel.
Among advertising, "word of mouth" is generally considered the highest quality advertisi
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Agreed. Influencer is newspeak for spokesmodel, we just don't realize it yet. With the almost-death of tv advertising for a generation they (ad companies) freaked out and had to figure out a new way to reach generations that are not only ad-blind but ad-hostile. So as soon as they figured out how to fake authenticity, we got influencers/spokesmodels.
The Followers also tells a darker story - (Score:3, Insightful)
Have we become sheep?
At least in America, we were driven to be leaders. We once aspired to be great inventors, scientists, industrialists, athletes and generals. Have we forgotten Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, etc. All those gurus with books, cassettes, discs, blogs, podcasts and TED videos? Even the fake heroes in the movies were all about inspiring us to be our best selves. And the real heroes, like FDR, Kennedy and Trump (oops, is that one too many?), those were the people who made America great!
But now there are billions of Followers whose ambition is to worship a self-appointed 'influencer' who has actually accomplished nothing and is only scamming a flawed system.
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we were driven to be leaders
This here, this is dumb. This isn't just a problem in the US, veneration of leadership is a global phenomena, but it is certainly a problem. There's the obvious: oh we're driven to be leaders are we? And for how many of the hundreds of millions of us has that worked out? I'm all for setting high standards, but this particular dream is one that I can't achieve unless I stand on the heads of other people. If we're all driven to the same dream then that necessarily means that I'm fucking over everyone else.
Re:The Followers also tells a darker story - (Score:4, Insightful)
At least in America, we were driven to be leaders. We once aspired to be great inventors, scientists, industrialists, athletes and generals.
Wow. How brainwashed are you to think that this is applied to "America", rather than to a small subset of people. Here's some questions for you:
Are there less inventors in America now than your mythical past?
Are there less scientists and industrialists?
Are decade old records still standing rather than being broken constantly by young new athletes?
Is your army lacking generals or the MIC much smaller than it once was?
But now there are billions of Followers whose ambition is to worship a self-appointed 'influencer' who has actually accomplished nothing and is only scamming a flawed system.
The world has always been about wanting to be like someone. That group of someones were always represented by a wide range of people including the genuinely successful, the 15min famers who were elevated by a brief moment of public popularity, and the scammers.
You are spot on about the modern world, but I genuinely question what kind of a sheltered upbringing you had to think that this hasn't *always* been the case.
holy cow (Score:2)
This is gold. Picture says a thousand words