“I-R.A.S.C. – infra red light against surveillance cameras” is the title of an exhibition by Stefanie Schultz / Berlin, D.N.K. / FILOART at Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin. The exhibition opens on Friday, october 26 at 8pm (Oranienburger Str. 54-56a / Berlin).
Tacheles, a former squat in Berlin Mitte, is – more than it is a “Kunsthaus” – a symbol for autonomous activity in a stable state of coma, stuck between the (often sad) reality of public funding and the terminologie of protest for a long time. An exhibition dealing with surveillance seems to be in line with the tradition of Tacheles. However, public surveillance and the loss of privacy in general were the topics in a number of recent art festivals and conferences. The title of this years Ars Electronica was “Goodbye Privacy”. Tacheles is obviously in good company.
The central element of the show are a wearable infra red lights, that appear very bright when filmed by standard surveillance cameras, while being invisible for the human eye. They are attached so the area of the face is overexposed and the face appears as a white stain in the film. The exhibition is conceived as an interactive installation featuring a hard to navigate parcourse. A surveillance camera is positioned at the only point that provides an overview of the installation. A sign “Hier sind Sie sicher” (“Here you are safe”) welcomes visitors to the space that may only be entered after a face check.
The instructions on how to build a wearable “I-R.A.S.C.” are available for visitors. This proposes a grass root movement empowered by an open source strategy. Hard to imaging though, were “I-R.A.S.C.” outfits to become more popular than bicycle helmets, that the surveillance industry wouldn’t come up with systems that filter out the frequency of the infra red light or use a different part of the spectrum all together. Maybe one with the side effect allowing an x-ray view. I’m not looking forward to that kind of arms race.