MANIFESTO FOR CCTV FILMMAKERS

[_manu Luksch]

Soon my sci fi movie 'FACELESS' -made from authentic cctv recordings- will
be released; at this occasion I'd like to post its manifesto below ,
Manu 
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THE FILMMAKER AS SYMBIONT:
opportunistic infections of the surveillance apparatus
http://www.ambienttv.net/content/?q=dpamanifesto

Filmmakers render aspects of nature, human activity and imagination visible.
The documentary film continues to be a potent form in all its variety, from
the personal video diary to "objective" fly-on-the-wall shoots, to the
hybrid fact/fiction ("faction") film. But the most prolific documentarists
are no longer to be found in film schools and TV stations. In some European
and American cities, every street corner is under constant surveillance
using recording closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras. Such cameras are typically
operated by local government, police, private security firms, large
corporations and small businesses, and private individuals, and may be
automatic or controlled (zoomed and panned) from a remote control room.
Filmmakers, and in particular documentarists of all flavours, should reflect
on this constant gaze. Why bring in additional cameras, when much private
and public urban space is already covered from numerous angles?

MANIFESTO FOR CCTV FILMMAKERS declares a set of rules, establishes effective
procedures, and identifies further issues for filmmakers using pre-existing
CCTV (surveillance) systems as a medium in the UK. The manifesto is
constructed with reference to the Data Protection Act 1988 and related
privacy legislation that gives the subjects of data records (including CCTV
footage) access to copies of the data. The filmmaker's standard equipment is
thus redundant; indeed, its use is prohibited. The manifesto can easily be
adapted for different jurisdictions.


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MANIFESTO FOR CCTV FILMMAKERS (UK VERSION, 2005)

GENERAL

The filmmaker is not permitted to introduce any cameras or lighting into the
location.  

SCRIPT

A protagonist ("data subject") is required to feature in all sequences.
Data Protection Act 1998; 1998 Chapter 29; Part II Section 7(1). **
[A]n individual is entitled ­
(a) to be informed by any data controller whether personal data of which
that individual is the data subject are being processed by or on behalf of
that data controller,
(b) if that is the case, to be given by the data controller a description of
­
(i) the personal data of which that individual is the data subject,
(ii) the purposes for which they are being or are to be processed, and
(iii) the recipients or classes of recipients to whom they are or may be
disclosed,
(c) to have communicated to him in an intelligible form ­
(i) the information constituting any personal data of which that
individual is the data subject, and
(ii) any information available to the data controller as to the source
of those data, and
(d) where the processing by automatic means of personal data of which that
individual is the data subject for the purpose of evaluating matters
relating to him such as, for example, his performance at work, his
creditworthiness, his reliability or his conduct, has constituted or is
likely to constitute the sole basis for any decision significantly affecting
him, to be informed by the data controller of the logic involved in that
decision-taking.

The documented activity of the protagonist must qualify as personal or
sensitive data. The filmmaker is to establish this by locating a
surveillance camera and circumscribing the field of action for the actors
relative to it, so that incidents of biographical relevance (i.e. that
reveal personal data) occur in the frame.
ICO CCTV systems and the Data Protection Act JB v.5 01/02/04 (***)
2. The court decided that for information to relate to an individual (and be
covered by the DPA) it had to affect their privacy. To help judge this, the
Court decided that two matters were important: that a person had to be the
focus of information, the information tells you something significant about
them.

The provisions of the 1998 Act are based on the requirements of a European
Directive, which at, Article 2, defines, personal data as follows:
³Personal data² shall mean any information relating to an identified or
identifiable natural person; an identifiable person is one who can be
identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an
identification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical,
physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.
The definition of personal data is not therefore limited to circumstances
where a data controller can attribute a name to a particular image. If
images of distinguishable individuals¹ features are processed and an
individual can be identified from these images, they will amount to personal
data.

All people other than the protagonist ("third parties") will be rendered
unidentifiable on the data obtained from the CCTV operators. Typically,
operators blur or mask out faces of third parti

Video as Urban Condition: VIDEOpool

[_manu Luksch]

Hiya, I'd like to bring this call to your attention. Also, even so it is
limited to video (such as minidv and dvd) for presentation, conceptually
it means 'video' in its broad sense. I'd be really interested to include
video-documentations of locative media projects or other and look forward
to your contributions. Cheers,manu

===CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS OF VIDEO WORKS===
 
Video as Urban Condition: VIDEOpool
Deadline: 7th of May, 2004
 
 
===Video as Urban Condition===
 
Š examines the ways in which video has become part of the urban fabric:
the omnipresent screen and the watchful eye that inhabits private and
public space. Here, video is the ubiquitous equipment of the home, the
street and the work place: the tube, the box, the telly, CCTV,
info-screen, electronic billboard, in-store advertising, mobile,
terrestrial, cable, satellite, pay-per-view, downloadable, for sale, to
rent.
 
Video as Urban Condition http://www.vargas.org.uk/projects/video_as/
 
 
===VIDEOpool===
 
Šis the videotheque attached to the symposium and future touring
exhibition. The Pool aims at expanding the range of positions presented in
the show and symposium by giving access to related video work. During
opening hours, visitors have access to the Pool and viewing facilities
(DVD and MiniDV). Work which has been submitted to the Pool will be
indexed, documented and promoted online at the project website. The
contents are intended to help set the agenda of the symposium and provide
concrete points for discussion.
 
 
VIDEOpool is online at
http://www.vargas.org.uk/projects/video_as/pool.html entry form at
http://www.vargas.org.uk/projects/video_as/pool.rtf

 
 
===Special focus: Urban road movies===
 
February 2003: the Congestion Charge is introduced in London. The fee
applies to all vehicles that drive in the 21 sq kms of central London.
Compliance is ensured by a surveillance apparatus that records vehicle
registration plates. Every vehicle is monitored over its entire journey
through the charging zone. In medieval times, city walls signified to
those entering them that they were approaching the centre of political,
economic, and religious power. Today¹s guardians, closed-circuit TV
cameras that peer down from posts on every street corner, ensure that
modern citizens are no less aware of this fact.

 
In 1995, at the Telepolis symposium in Luxemburg, an attempt was made to
redefine urbanism for an emerging digital age, in which trade,
communication, and information exchange would be increasingly carried out
by means of e-commerce, video conferencing, and chat- and newsgroups.
Today, media convergence is a reality, but the predicted decline in the
physical movement of people has not occurred. The increase in traffic is
not just across national boundaries, but also across the economically more
significant city borders. Former inhabitants leave older European and
American city centres, now turned into lifeless zones of speculation. The
influx of people into newer urban centres in Asia and South America is
creating mega-cities.
 
The European city plan is medieval; its nodes of activity are crossroads.
The new Asian media cities (attached to Dubai, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur) are
growing around an infrastructure of data highways, and their nodes of
activity are the access points to these highways. To what extent can
electronic media impose or create an urbanism? What kind of urbanism will
this be? could this be? Or, will the urban accrete only in the
interstices, despite the planners¹ best intentions?
 
Media convergence and the diffusion of digital technology, coupled with
increasing anxiety and paranoia in the city, has greatly expanded the
realm of video. The telephone conversation, the journal entry, the
eyewitness account, the infant¹s room, ­ all have enhanced, supported,
substantiated, monitored, or otherwise qualified by the use of ³moving²
image. Video is most prevalent not in any ³pure² form, but in such hybrid
manifestations.
 
This symposium and exhibition will examine the extents to which mediation
forms our urban experience, and urban experience influences video culture.
We invite work that throw light on the place of video in the city, and of
the city in video. Works that situate urban experience around networks of
traffic (human, vehicular, or data), or that examine the relationship of
newer, developing cities to media, would be of particular interest.
 
Manu Luksch (march 2004)
 
 
===REQUIREMENTS===
  
 
Send work and entry form to:
 
³VIDEO AS URBAN CONDITION²
Manu Luksch 
ambient space, Regent studios Unit 76
8 Andrews Road
London E8 4QN
 
 
post stamped:   7th of May, 2004
video formats:   DVD or MiniDV  (pls no VCD or VHS)
form download: 
http://www.vargas.org.uk/projects/video_as/pool.rtf
inquiries:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 
===EVENTS===
 
The VIDEOpool will be launched at the symposium end of May 2004, London.
The artis