CCTV Social: Day I Session 2. 12 pm

Cinematographer: Shaina Anand

Duration: 00:05:34; Aspect Ratio: 1.366:1; Hue: 210.878; Saturation: 0.106; Lightness: 0.293; Volume: 0.107; Cuts per Minute: 16.842; Words per Minute: 157.310

For CCTV Social, artist Shaina Anand collaborated with Manchester Metropolitan University and Arndale Shopping Centre to open working CCTV environments to a general audience. People normally 'enclosed' by these networks came into the control rooms to view, observe and monitor this condition, endemic in the UK.. About thirty people signed up for one-hour sessions in the MMU security center to engage with the CCTV operators and monitor surveillance procedures. These sessions became somewhat like a diagnostic clinic, where they discussed symptoms, anxieties and inoculations about their 'public health', under surveillance. These therapy sessions seemed to work both ways, for the participants as well as the security officers.

2 colleagues from the Cornerhouse education program (the work was commissioned Cornerhouse) signed on for the noon session. Joe, one of the operators, (blurred on request) explains how the CCTV camera would be "effective" in preventing crime as he demonstrates a series of hypothetical scenarios. Bernadette shows us the VHS tape cabinets and explains the record/erase procedure. Steve, on a ground patrol radios in and asks her to watch over a 'guy and a girl having a blazing row, pushing a trolley (with a baby).'

Dean enters the surveillance control room of the Manchester Metropolitan University. The walls of the room are lined with numbered screens showing live feed transmitted by CCTV cameras numbered similarly. Cut to Bernie who leads Marissa and Chris to a cupboard where all the tapes of feed recorded during the day are kept. She explains how 28 tapes are reused cyclically in keeping with the codes of practice on the operation of CCTV according to the Data Protection Act.

Related Links: Surveillance and the loss of Privacy
Dean: It's interesting to know about CCTV. Seeing as though we're supposed to be filmed few hundred times a day. Yeah, it's nice to know how they work.

Bernie: So this is the day cupboard. And that's our tapes. If you have a look there are 28 tapes. So we're now up to number 14. So tomorrow is that, and so on. We work the tape and that's the last tape, and once that goes in it's finished. It's the 28th tape.

Marissa: You reuse them or do you just...

Bernie: Yeah, for round about a year, and then you have to replace all the tapes. We're hoping to get digital, you know, like all the other places have got, cause it's really good. And I think there will still be the rule of 28 days. But at least it won't be, we wont have all these cupboards, we'd have little bit... This much space.
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Chatham Tower, Manchester
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester

Bernie points out the Chatham Tower on the screen, switching from one camera to another for a better view. The 6 officers alternate between their duties every two hours. The patrol officers keep a look out on the streets and radio in the control room if they spot anything "suspicious."
Bernie: That's where our 21 is, which is down... (Zooms into frame and points out the camera) The eye in the sky, that's our 21.(Zooms out of frame a little) If it goes out, this won't go up anymore. But that's the Chatham Tower. And... Okay, I'll show you another part of the Chatham (Switches on the console to camera 25)... 25... 25... (Zooms out of camera 21 and switches to camera 25) There.(Zooms into frame and points to the Chatham Tower) This is Chatham tower again on this side. That's as far as it goes. It would go up... (Points to the reception area of the Chatham Tower) And then the reception area of the front door is there, just up there.

Dean: How many security cars do you have controlling?

Bernie: Two up, two patrol, two in the control, and then we alternate. We move every two hours.
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All Saints Park, Manchester
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Steve (via Radio): Look at camera 17, turn to your left or camera 13 towards the gate of All Saints Park; you see a guy and a girl pushing a trolley, having a blazing row with each other, opposite the church.

Bernie (zooms into camera 17): Oh dear! Just make sure she is all right. I'll just check and pull back out a bit. (Bernie zooms out of the frame) I'll just keep an eye from the distance now just to... So I'm not in their personal space, but obviously something is going on. we don't know if he's going to get aggressive towards the girl.

(Radio beeps)

Bernie: Received loud and clear.

Steve (on the Radio): Yeah, Roger.

Bernie: They've actually kind of split up now. She's walking towards what used to be the Metro - All Saints Park and he's walking on route towards camera 17. Over.

(Phone ringing. Bernie answers call.)

Bernie: What you have to do is come across from the students union. Do you know where it is?

(Steve on the Radio)

Steve: It all looks okay. Obviously they were in a domestic. All is solved over there.

(Camera pans to Marissa)

Marissa: It's very strange, isn't it? Just being in here and seeing? All the places you thought that, " I'm just minding my own business. Doing my own thing," and yet you're being watched by a million cameras. It's quite a lot to take in actually.
Steve has gone on patrol and he radios into the patrol room and asks Bernie to "check up" on a couple who seem to be having a bit of a spat, for fear of it escalating into a violent situation. Bernie trains the CCTV camera in their direction and zooms in. She zooms out quickly (but keeps looking), so that she is "not in their personal space", in keeping with a "code of practice" on the operation of CCTV which stipulates that the data collected should be "adequate, relevant and not excessive." On the street the couple splits up, the woman starts walking away with the trolley and the man crosses to the other side of the street. The cameras follow them for a while. Bernie updates Steve with regard to the direction the two of them are walking in.

Related Links: code of practice for CCTV
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Chris (to Dean): How noticeable was it that there are cameras around you? Do you kind of forget that they are there? Or it doesn't cross your mind?

Dean: You get some people... It depends really, if it's high on their agenda, innit? Being filmed all the time don't really bother me that much at all, to be honest. But it's interesting to know that if I went out there and run over, it's probably being captured on some cameras somewhere.
Chris asks Dean if he notices the cameras around him. Dean seems indifferent to surveillance; it does not affect him.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
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Joe talks about how "if" someone tried to steal something out of a building, he would be caught easily because of the CCTV cameras around. The officer can switch from one scene to another rather quickly. He says he would have the thief "covered wherever he would go."
Joe: So you pinched something something out of there basically. We get a phone call, it's just a matter of pressing one button, we've got you coming out of that building, out of John Dolton. And say you went out the back door... (Uses the console to switch from camera focusing on the main entrance of the building to another at the back entrance) Same again, bang! It's just a matter of doing that. (Zooms into frame) We've got you covered wherever you go. So it is interesting.

Dean: Are there many like black spots where you can't get in?

Joe: Round here?

Dean: Yeah.

Joe: Not really, no. We've got pretty much covered on everything.

Dean: No tips for me then.

Joe: No!

(Everyone laughs)

SA: You could shoot a film there. The only film that... a film that no one else can film!
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
black spots
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CCTV
Dean: Do you get like a film company coming in and saying if they can do a shot from there?

Joe: No, this is the first time.

Dean: Would you like... Would that be something that you could do? Say I wanted to get a shot really high from one of those cameras if I had a film going on and I could use that shot. Say I had some actors down here, and say I had a scene going on here. Is there any chance I could borrow that shot?

Marissa: Do you see a lot when it's raining?

Joe: Yeah, believe it or not, they do have wipers on. (Everyone laughs)

SA: So where is the wiper control?

Joe: The wipers are here.

SA: Oh, it's like a car .
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
The CCTV cameras have in built wipers "like a car."
actors
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