CCTV Social: Day I Session 1. 11am
Cinematographer: Shaina Anand
Duration: 00:08:14; Aspect Ratio: 1.366:1; Hue: 228.206; Saturation: 0.095; Lightness: 0.321; Volume: 0.114; Cuts per Minute: 20.123; Words per Minute: 120.495
Summary: For CCTV Social, 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.
This is a cut from the first session of the day. A young film-maker from London shows up with her camera, and quizzes the surveillance control room officer of Manchester Metropolitan University about how the system works. She expresses her reservations about surveillance as a preventative measure against crime. Interestingly, she brings her camera along and films as much as she can.
Joe: Okay. That's fine, yeah. And then you've gotten another... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... You don't? Okay. Any problem, just give us a ring, yeah? All right! Bye Bye.
(Song playing in background on radio: 'Have a nice day' by The Stereophonics)
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Print out of the picture of a man dressed in black pants, a green T shirt, and a black jacket lies on the table in front of Bernie. Shot of computer screen. Camera feed from screen numbered 16 shows a black car driving out of a parking lot. Date (14/03/08). Time (11:39:27). The phone rings and Joe answers.
Computer Screens Reads:
Incident Reporting System-[Security Desk Log]
Type
Date/Time
Officer
Incident Reporting No.
Filter By Campus: All
Filter Location: All
Filter Log Type: All
Count:40
Start: 13/03/2008 00:00 End: 15/03/2008 00:00
Campus
Location
('Have a nice day' by The Stereophonics plays on the radio. Someone hums along.)
Joe: Morning, security.
Chris: Hi! I'm actually here to see you.
Jodie: Hello.
Chris: So, this is our first visitor.
Bernie: You're Jodie and Chris.
Jodie: Yes, Jodie.
CCTV
big brother
cameras
live feed
screens
security
surveillance
Jodie: How do you go through what you have to do?
Joe: What do you mean?
Jodie: Do you just sit here and watch?
Joe: Yeah. Well, it's like two different jobs really, cause I work nights.
Jodie: Right.
Joe: And there's a lot more that happens at nights than it does on days.
Jodie: Sure.
Joe: A lot more muggings, lot more fights. And basically...Yeah! It's a lot more
interesting.
Jodie: (Laughs) Interesting in what way?
Joe: Well there's a lot more happening. There's a lot more going on. As you can imagine the clubs are open till 2 o'clock in the morning, people are drunk...
Jodie : Sure.
Joe: And
anything can escalate from something small to World War III, basically.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
The screens in the background transmit live feed from the CCTV cameras. Four camera views appear in a quad on screens, a blank green screen flashes on the bottom left view on the screen numbered 24. The CCTV camera that transmits live feed to the screen is out of order.
CCTV
big brother
cameras
crime
investigate
prevention
privacy
screens
security
surveillance
Jodie: So, what about...like crazy things...like someone wanted to cause a massive
disturbance,
terrorism disruption, whatever... So, if someone planned to just cover all these cameras in shaving foam so that no one can see out of them anymore...?
Joe: Not a chance.
Jodie: Not a chance?
Joe: I'd say, not a chance. Not at all.
Jodie: You're very sure.
Joe:
I'll guarantee you.
(Laughs at the absurdity of the idea.)
Jodie: Say it was a strategic operation and they wanted to put all the cameras out in Manchester. There's just... There is no way?
Joe: Not a chance.
Jodie: Right. There is no way?
Joe: They'd have to get in here first. They won't get in here.
Jodie: Okay.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
The conversation revolves around
paranoia politics and
technoprobing.
CCTV
camera
crime
disturbance
paranoia
screens
surveillance
terrorism
Jodie askes Joe some
frequently asked questions about
CCTV, dealing particularly with the debate of
digital versus analogue
Jodie: And how does this all work? Talk me through it.
Joe: This is your camera selection here.
Jodie: Right.
Joe: Here you can pan and tilt, and so you can move it around wherever you want. Say, for example, you want to see what the flashing lights are. At night, flashing lights could be anything. So you just stop; sorry, you stop and do a quick zoom and see what it is. Focusing... So that wagon's just done something for instance, yeah? And then just get the registration number, and that's all you need. And when the police come, they'll know exactly where these belong to. It's all so quick...
Jodie: Okay.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
CCTV
analogue
cameras
image quality
pan
surveillance
tilt
An eagle-eye view of traffic on a street can be seen on the screen attached to the camera selection console. The camera zooms to get a clearer image of the two cars. Joe and Jodie discuss the
UK police requirements for digital CCTV systems, the
image quality of CCTV cameras, whether or not
CCTV is overrated, and the correspondence between
lighting and crime
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
CCTV
Jodie: Is it possible to see any footage from night to see how clear it is?
Joe: As I said, it's pretty hard to explain what it is - what you see now, but dark. But it's still clear, if you know what I mean.
Jodie: Oh, it's clear?
Joe: Yeah. Of course, it's crystal clear.
Jodie: Would you, for example, be able to tell colour of clothing?
Joe: Yes.
Jodie: Male/ female?
Joe: Yeah, yeah.
Jodie: All right.
Joe: It's like looking at me if I zoomed in.
Jodie: Quite like that navy and green car, that's not a lot different in colour. Would you be able to tell the colour?
Joe: If they've done something, of course you could. At night, you mean?
Jodie: Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. It's dead easy.
Jodie: Is that because the
street lighting is really good? Or just because the cameras...
Joe: Yeah, just the cameras.
Jodie: ...are quite powerful?
Joe: Yeah, yeah.
cameras
clarity
colors
identification
image quality
quality
street lighting
surveillance
Joe: It can only get bigger basically.
Jodie: Ideally, would you have the whole of Manchester covered in cameras? And you'd feel
safer?
Joe: Yeah.
Jodie: And you think that the general public would feel
safer?
Joe: I mean, like I told you before, from here - that's the end of the university basically. (Camera zooms into a camera on the street and points to it) And there's a camera there that's operated by City Centre CCTV and that links into town. Yeah, Manchester.
Jodie: Yeah.
Joe: And if anything happens, either way you got the university (Pans the same camera to the right and points to the university control room) which is next door, and they take over from here. That's their control room; that's their cameras on the other side of the bridge. So you can be watched quite a lot.
Bernie: So is this happening for a week now?
Joe: They start there - there's their first camera - then they move out into Didsbury. Fallowfield, Didsbury, Rusholme.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Related Links:
Big Brother
CCTV cameras move crime a few feet down the sidewalk
Smile you're being watched
CCTV
cameras
crime
people
prevention
safety
security
surveillance
Jodie: I was just wondering... You said that this camera here, it filmed a shooting.
Joe: Yeah.
Jodie: So it didn't prevent the shooting.
Joe: No. Well, it doesn't prevent anything. But it's a
deterrent anyway. If people know they're there, they are not going to do anything. You don't know it's there, you don't know you're being watched.
Bernie: That's good.
Joe: The locals like do know where every camera is.
Jodie: And do you find that they just avoid them and crime is committed ________?
Joe: It's enjoyable.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
CCTV
Related Links:
The most spied upon people in Europe
Privacy Issues of Wearable Cameras versus Surveillance Cameras
Who will Watch the Watchmen
cameras
captured
crime
deterrent
prevention
shooting
spied on
surveillance
watch
watchmen
CCTV
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
SA: So Jodie, it's interesting that the first person who signed on is also a film-maker. And... What is it? What interested you? What were the questions you had to come into a CCTV...
Jodie: Just the access, cause I'm quite cynical about
whether CCTV footage is actually effective in preventing crime. Because I always see it as a preventative measure and I feel like... For me, it's an
invasion of privacy really. I'm being filmed, and a lot of time I'm not aware that I'm being filmed. And I was just wondering that I want to speak to someone who was directly involved in using it, to see what they thought and whether they thought it was effective or not, really. But it's interesting that one camera is broken and it didn't have that big an effect ____________. There's other cameras there.
SA: There are three more covering that ambit.
Jodie: Yes. Three more covering that area.
art project
cameras
crime
cynical
effective
filmmaker
invasion
prevents
privacy
surveillance
Pad.ma requires JavaScript.
