Feb. 4–6 2015 – CICG, Geneva, Switzerland

Wearable Noir

Workshop
Curated by the Lift community
Thu, Feb. 05 2015 - 10:30 to 12:00
Room 12 (Floor 2)

Workshop description: Soon, it will be impossible to leave home without being captured.

CCTV or drone video surveillance, facial recognition in photographs, or the ubiquitous recording capabilities of wearable technology, combined with faster speeds of connectivity and cloud storage, result in a data double being created without consent.

Rather than submitting to this reality, we can develop ways to consciously decide when and how we would like to be documented, as well as strategies for resisting visual capture.

In this workshop we will explore these strategies using a variety of media and technologies, including makeup, fashion, wearable technology, and other materials as provided. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own additional materials as needed.

 

Interactivity :

  1. Presentation A brief presentation on strategies for evading surveillance in the public realm including anti-face make up, stealth clothing, Faraday cages and deimatic wearables.
  2. Photographing participants Before the workshop participants will be photographed with technologies such as online face recognition software, infra-red / thermal cameras (budget dependent) to see how they are currently detected.
  3. Prototyping During the workshop the facilitators will help participants prototype wearables with make up, clothing and craft materials to evade sensors.
  4. Testing At the end participants will be photographed again to test the wearable prototypes created against technology recognition.

Participants are encouraged to wear the prototypes they have created throughout the rest of the conference to continue debate about the topic in the wider conference setting.

The workshop results will be documented as a series of before and after photographs of the participants and indicate how successful their wearable strategies are against detection.