Further images / Return to 2012
Description: In July 2012, the NYPD adopted ‘The Domain Awareness System’, a crime-fighting mechanism developed by Microsoft. This ‘all seeing’ surveillance device, tracked ‘suspects’ by pulling data together from multiple sources to create an ‘incriminating narrative’. Replicating this mechanism with a different form and intent, Action Researcher/Performers were visibly seen recording live site-specific data. The Action Researcher/Performer on the outside of the booth recorded observations from the surrounding environment and then inserted the completed page of writing through a hole inside the booth. The Action Researcher/Performer sitting inside read the text and then developed a fictional story based on elements of the recording. The particular words from the local observation that were replicated as inspirational for the fictional narrative were underlined, clearly identifying what ‘data’ had been extracted to develop the story. Real life scenarios merged with the imagined, as street names became novel characters, sidewalk debris as evidence in a crime tale, posters read as political dramas and ‘suspicious’ activities became central narrative plots.