Frames Article

Critical Cartography
Computing Culture

Researchers:		Chris Csikszentmihályhi Tad Hirsch
Project Web site:		http://web.media.mit.edu/%7Etad/htm/proj.html
Group Web site:		http://compcult.media.mit.edu/

New technology—and new ways of thinking about technology—may be allowing those who have traditionally been observed to turn the tables and become their own viral network of proactive "surveyors." The Computing Culture research group is exploring different ways for people to "watch back" using low-cost, wireless devices.

Researcher Tad Hirsch has created a Web-based interface that maps the location of surveillance cameras throughout Manhattan, allowing people to plot routes where they could avoid being filmed. He has extended this work by also giving users the capability for data entry. Users can add the location of new cameras to the database, as well as information on where the cameras are pointed and who owns them.

Hirsch also is working to find ways to involve community members in a grassroots, anti-crime program, employing the same type of wireless devices used for the anti-surveillance effort.

This project is based on prior work by Hirsch at the Institute for Applied Autonomy in New York, and in conjuction with the MIT Department of Urban Studies' Center for Reflective Community Practice.

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