CCTV Social: Day I Session 7. Evening
Cinematographer: Shaina Anand
Duration: 00:07:04; Aspect Ratio: 1.366:1; Hue: 217.190; Saturation: 0.256; Lightness: 0.191; Volume: 0.112; Cuts per Minute: 17.098; Words per Minute: 164.484
Summary: 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.
Both Lowri and Amy had been victims and witnesses of crime that had occurred in the area being surveyed by the MMU security Centre. They recount these instances, even as the operator tracks a a hooded male down several streets.
Numbered screens line the walls of the surveillance control room of the Manchester Metropolitan University. The screens display live feed being transmitted by CCTV cameras numbered correspondingly. A CCTV camera zooms in on "The Footage," a pub in Grosvenor Street. Some light-hearted easy banter about a locality that Lowri once lived in, one which the control officer has monitored for years.
SA: What's "The Footage"? That's a funny name.
Chris: I know, I noticed that.
Joe: It's a pub.
SA: Ah, it's a pub.
G2: Yeah, there used to be an old cinema house out there.
SA: Ah, that's why "The Footage."
Joe: It used to be a snooker hall.
G2: If you get inside, they still have the balconies and all in there.
Joe: They had, yeah, in the cellar as well.
G2: Oh yeah?
Joe: Many years ago, it was the pictures. Then it was a snooker hall, then it's become a pub.
G2: Can you get any higher up? They've got a balcony in that top bit over there. Oh yeah, there. I always think it would be great to get to play a gig up there. When we used to... We used to live in those halls actually.
Joe: Cambridge.
G2: Yeah.
CCTV
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club
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pub
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watching
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
G2: Its weird though; every time I've had my car, or when I borrowed a car, it's broken into. Any crime has happened, there is never any CCTV of...
Joe: There's not?
G2: No.
Steve: I mean, to be fair, right? On a Friday night, one of these cars could be broken into.
G2: Yeah.
Joe: Cause you're that tied up with the clubs and the pubs and things like that.
G2: Yeah, it's prioritising, isn't it?
Joe: There you go, you go with the flow basically.
G2: (Girl's name)'s bag was grabbed in that park over there, wasn't it?
G1: It was grabbed...
G2: Just in that corner, wasn't it?
G1: Yeah, just further down there.
Joe: Down here?
G1: Yeah, right there.
G2: When we were walking there, from there. About there it got snatched. She gave good chase though, right through the park.
Joe: She get it back then?
G2: No, we couldn't catch him.
G1: Is it the back you look at as well? The back of the halls? Because the bag can also...
Joe: What? Down Stratford road, you mean?
G1: Yeah.
G2: Yeah, that's it.
Joe: Like, between subway, you mean?
G1: Like, is that part of yours or no?
G1: I've got held at gun point at that spa shop.
Joe: At gunpoint?
G1: Yeah, at the spa. You know, the one on the left of that road
Lowri makes mention of the fat that CCTV has never been of any help in situations where she's been the victim of crime. The surveillance control officer justifies it by saying that monitoring certain locations is a priority as there is a higher probability of crime happening there, and as a result of this, some areas get neglected sometimes. Joe watches the road where the girls were mugged one night while they narrate the incident. Then Amy recounts the experience of being held at gunpoint at a spa shop in the same locality. Joe appears a little baffled; his reaction is quite understandable considering that all this crime has taken place right under the surveillance centre's "watchful gaze."
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
CCTV
bag
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mugging
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Joe: Did you report it?
G1: Yeah, I did, cause I was working in the shop.
Joe: Yeah, alright. I think I remember that.
G1: Do you?
G2: It was about five years ago I think.
G1: Yeah, that was me.
Joe: So you've been a victim then?
G1: Well yeah, I guess so.
G2: And they run off on mountain bikes, didn't they? They had this big gun. And they just...
G1: Did you have to report? Did your footage catch them? Well, not catch them. But did it record it?
Joe: No, I don't think so. Because this camera is usually pointed on Stratford Road.
G1: I would have thought they would've have gone past there, though.
Joe: If they got past there it is quite possible that we did have footage of it. It wasn't on my shift, when it was there.
Ashok: So your shop didn't have it's own CCTV system as well?
Joe: It was in a spa, yeah?
G1: Yeah.
Ashok: So you got people's faces in it.
G1: I think so, but I'm not too sure cause I left straight after that; so it was a bit weird really. And when I rung up the police guys they were like... I was like "I was just being held at gunpoint," and they were like, " We've got a rape in Longside, we've got a murder in Hulme, you're gonna have to wait an hour and a half." I was like, "God... somebody just come get me."
G2: Yeah.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
This conversation is an interesting look into the inefficient way that crime prevention, security and surveillance operate on a quotidian basis. It raises a set of interesting questions: Is CCTV effective in preventing/ solving crime? CCTV versus Police? CCTV with police? What is the role of the human element in the surveillance scenario?
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watching
G1: I don't know. It wasn't as scary as it seems cause I knew it was a vulnerable place, I knew it was gonna happen. And I heard this big crash, cause I was in the back abusing the phone - I was on the phone to a friend and I heard this massive crashing thud. And I knew exactly what that is, and thought I could go and lock myself in the toilet and be a real wimp, or prefer to see what it is. And then I saw what it was.
Ashok: So they broke the glass? Or...
G1: I don't know what - they must have kicked something on their way and it made a real impact, or something.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
She continues to discuss the armed robbery at the spa.
CCTV
camera
crime
criminals
gunpoint
prevention
robbery
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Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
SA: So what prompted you guys to come in?
G2: It just sounded quite interesting, and a chance that you would not normally get to see - of his side of the camera, I think.
SA: The camera
s.
G2: The cameras, yeah. Gosh, yeah. And I think I know this area very well cause we've really lived in this part for about a year. So it's quite nice to... I just think, though, what they've seen is...
Joe: Yeah, we do have that. People wondering what they've done in the past, and what we've seen on camera.
G2: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, I used to live just down that road near the Medlock, just further down from the student village.
G1: We did a bit of filming in there, on the flats about that...
Joe: Out there.
G2: Yeah.
G2: Oh, must have fallen asleep.
Joe: Yeah it is.
The CCTV camera "follows" someone dressed in black walking on the pavement. As the person crosses over the street, the camera continues monitoring his movements. Laurie points to a place on the screen and Joe trains the camera on that spot. The camera zooms in, zooms out and pans right. Zooms in again to a shot of a man sleeping on the ground with his side propped against a wall.
CCTV
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filming
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G2: Oh wait a minute, I recognise that soda bottle! (Laughs)
Ashok: So you know those guys, what?
G2: Yeah, well, I used to live opposite there.
Steve: Medlock?
G2: Yeah.
Stuart: It's closing down, that place.
G2: Oh it's horrible, I hate it. Is that the salvation army there?
Joe: Yeah.
G2: They are shutting down the one in Salford as well. Well, they're moving it.
Joe: Moving to the alcoves, right?
CO: Social housing, split them up into smaller units.
G2: Right.
Joe: Well there's a hundred odd people out there, I think. Probably in groups of ten or something like that, living together.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Shot of street with parked cars lining up the sides. The camera focuses on three men standing on the pavement. The CCTV camera pans right and left taking in a view of the whole street., including a shot of the
Salvation Army Hostel in Medlock.
CCTV
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housing
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G2: Right, I feel quite reassured actually, that there is this kind of backup in a way.
SA: So we find it really strange.
G2: Yeah, I don't even notice them anymore. But...
SA: They've probably been around before you were born.
G2: Yeah, yeah. And just with those speed cameras and everything seems that... And everywhere you go, I feel that you can't really escape it, I think.
SA: Yeah, I didn't think of that. Steve was saying they've been around since the 60's.
G2: Really?
Joe: For a long time.
SA: So what's the shelf life of a camera?
Joe: At least past the shelf life, I should imagine. (Laughs) I'd say about...
Stuart: They don't last very long, do they?
Joe: I'd say about eight, ten years. Ten years maximum.
G2: Does it get damaged or vandalised?
Joe: No. Too high.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
The camera "follows" someone wearing a hoodie through the pavement. The camera focuses on a road crossing and then zooms out. There is a shot of a quad, split screens displaying live feed from CCTV cameras. It focuses briefly on a group of people standing in front of a pizza place, and then flits quickly across the streets.
CCTV
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escape
hide
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shelf life
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Chris: I've been meaning to ask all day - what does VDL stand for?
Joe: Visual Display Lost.
Chris: Oh well, you know!
Joe: Finished filming for the day now, are we?
SA: That's it.
Chris: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: No more positions, Steve.
(Everyone laughs)
Steve: Oh, all right.
Joe: Chill out time!
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
The bottom right quarter of a quad split screen displays a blank green background with 'VDL' flashing in white. Lowri Evans signs an image release form that allows the artist to publicly display the images.
cameras
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housing
people
salvation army
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