Surveillance Camera Players tour England

[NOT BORED!]

http://www.notbored.org/8june01.html


The Surveillance Camera Players tour England


Between 8 and 18 June 2001, the Surveillance Camera Players (SCP) 
embarked upon an extended tour of England. Unlike Holland, which the 
SCP briefly visited in February 2000, England is filled with 
surveillance cameras. According to current estimates, there are over 
1.5 million cameras (one for every 50 people) in operation. And there 
are plans to install even more, not just in London, but all over the 
country! Especially surveillance cameras that monitor automobile 
traffic (so-called "red light" cameras), which were being installed 
in every city the SCP visited: British politicians and police 
departments are absolutely crazy about them. Check out this recent 
photograph of the surveillance control room in the London borough of 
Newham to get an idea of what's going on.

It's easy to see why this is happening. In addition to creating jobs 
and raising revenues, England's vast surveillance apparatus is very 
useful as a tool of politically motivated social control. For 
example: during the SCP's stay (on Monday 18 June 2001), the Evening 
Standard reported that the police had released pictures of six people 
"wanted in connection with serious offenses committed during the May 
Day riots." These very clear pictures of people's faces were 
"extracted from hundreds of hours of CCTV [closed-circuit television] 
and Metropolitan Police footage taken on the day." The paper went on 
to report that "police collected CCTV films from scores of shops and 
businesses located in and around Oxford Street and Tottenham Court 
Road, which were key meeting areas [note: not the locations where the 
serious offenses were allegedly committed] for the anti-capitalist 
protests."

Arranged by e-mail in the months preceding the group's departure, the 
SCP's tour of England stopped in Bath, Bristol, Manchester and 
London. The group came prepared to perform five different plays: It's 
OK, Officer, which is designed to be performed by a mobile group of 3 
to 7 people; We know you are watching: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!, which 
can performed by 1 or 2 people who either remain stationary or travel 
around; God's Eyes Here on Earth, which is designed to be performed 
at churches or cathedrals only and by a group of 3 or more people; 
and two adaptations -- George Orwell's Animal Farm and Edgar Allan 
Poe's The Mask of the Red Death -- that require costumes, pre-planned 
movements and adequate time for rehearsal. Both Animal Farm and The 
Mask of the Red Death had been updated for the occasion. To comment 
upon the slaughter of over 6 million British animals, supposedly done 
in order to combat the spread of hoof-and-mouth and "mad cow 
disease," Animal Farm had been given a brand-new board. On it, a 
"cash cow," which is being strangled by a man wearing a tag that says 
"Agri-business," calls out, "Now I'm really mad!" And The Mask of the 
Red Death had been altered so that its reference to face recognition 
software wasn't limited to a specific company that manufacturers it. 
Unfortunately, neither the Orwell nor the Poe were performed in 
England. There was never time to bring together and rehearse with a 
sufficient number of players. Due to the high cost of traveling to 
England in the summer, the only members of the New York SCP who were 
able to go were Susan, Miranda and Bill. (In London, the group was 
augmented by Kimberly, who's now living in England.) Both adaptations 
require at least five performers to work.

Bath is a very beautiful Roman town that has become a godawful 
tourist trap. During the afternoon of Saturday, 9 June 2001 -- that 
is to say, in the midst of "The Bath Fringe Festival" -- the SCP 
performed two plays: It's OK, Officer, which was presented to the 
three police surveillance cameras that are installed along Walcot 
Street, and God's Eyes Here on Earth, which was presented to the 
police surveillance camera installed in the courtyard at the front of 
Abbey Church. Both performances were videotaped for Network of the 
World by Roddy Mansfield, who also taped an extended interview 
segment with the group. Roddy also informed the SCP about a device 
called Cypher, which is a small, remote-controlled, unmanned flying 
saucer. Designed to fly into hostile territories and engage in video 
surveillance, Cypher can also be used to deliver up to 50 kilograms 
of tear-gas and other "non-lethal" weapons.

During the first set of performances, the SCP were treated to a 
spectacle that they'd only seen once in their native country, namely, 
the weird sight of a surveillance camera catching sight of, turning 
to watch and, no doubt, zooming in on and videotaping one of their 
performances. This happened at both the first and the second 
surveillance cameras that the SCP visited as the group slowly made 
its way down Walcot Street. But, by the time the SCP reached the 
third and final surveillance camera, the officer assigned to watch 
the monitors had seen enough, and didn't want to see any more. And 
so, every time the SCP tried to position itself so that its 
performance could be seen by the surveillance camera, the officer 
turned the camera away and pointed it at something else! Absolutely 
delighted at the demonstrable results of their efforts, the SCP 
played "cat and mouse" with the officer for a little while, and then 
went off to prepare for their second performance of the day.

Something of an anti-climax, the SCP's performance of God's Eyes Here 
on Earth at the Abbey Church went well but didn't produce a strong 
reaction, at least when compared with the reactions the SCP get when 
they perform the play in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New 
York. A security guard came out of the church to see what has going 
on, and he used his walkie-talkie to speak to someone, but nothing 
came of it. A lot of tourists from Japan, Germany and America took 
photographs and shot video of the performance. Except for four 
grey-haired Germans, who laughed out loud, slapped their thighs and 
gave the thumbs-up sign of approval, most of the tourists looked at 
and/or photographed the SCP's performance out of a sense of 
obligation, not because they were provoked or stimulated by the sight 
of a group of people, taking turns to get down on their knees and 
pray to a surveillance camera as if it were a sacred object or God.

During the evening of Saturday, 9 June 2001, the SCP traveled from 
Bath to the nearby city of Bristol. With the help of Ian and Ben, the 
SCP ate a nice dinner and found its way to The Cube, an alternative 
film theater run entirely by volunteers. Sitting in the audience, the 
members of the SCP saw several superb video documentaries, including 
The Battle of the Beanfield and a few others that concerned violent 
police repression of efforts to hold Druid celebrations at Stonehedge 
during the Summer Solstice. After the main programme was over, the 
SCP showed one of its videotapes (the group's performance of Orwell's 
1984), gave an informal talk that was ever-so-slightly affected in an 
adverse fashion by jet-lag and excessive alcohol consumption, and 
gamely tried to answer questions from the audience. Fortunately, 
those in attendance -- among them such worthies as Tony and Hogge and 
Heath -- were a tolerant lot, and so the evening passed very 
pleasantly indeed.

The SCP were back in Bath for the afternoon of Sunday, 10 June 2001. 
In the midst of "National Walcot Day," the group once again performed 
It's OK, Officer directly in front of the three surveillance cameras 
that are installed along Walcot Street. Videotaped by Ben of 
I-Contact News, this series of performances was very well received by 
both the spectators and the other performers. A father of a 
six-year-old boy complained that more surveillance cameras in Bath 
meant more difficulty in getting his son to school without being 
spied upon. One of the MCs who was rapping along with heavy beats 
incorporated several of the SCP's slogans into his toast.

On Monday, 11 June 2001, the SCP traveled up to Manchester. At 9 pm 
on Monday evening, the SCP gave a lengthy presentation at The 
Okasional Cafe, a squatted social center at 62 Charles Street. Very 
well received by the audience, the presentation included a detailed 
history of the group, a screening of the group's performance of 
Orwell's 1984, and an exploration of the various levels at which a 
typical SCP performance operates (as a denunication of surveillance; 
as a statement in favor of privacy; as a reclamation of public space; 
as an anarchist critique of politics; as a situationist critique of 
performance art; as a combination of politics and art; as a parody of 
confessing one's sins to a priest; and as forms of social 
experimentation and personal growth). To commemorate the European 
Parliament's recently released report on Echelon, the SCP also gave a 
spirited reading of the rather lengthy list of American military 
entities that surveill the group's web site. At the end of the 
presentation, the SCP announced that they were available to both 
perform with local activists and help make maps of camera locations 
in Manchester.

During the early afternoon of Tuesday, 12 June 2001, the SCP assisted 
three local residents (Adele, Alex and Jay) in the time-consuming 
task of mapping camera locations in Manchester. Within a relatively 
small area, the group counted a total of 139 surveillance cameras. If 
these figures are correct, then the per-block density of cameras in 
Manchester is almost twice that in Manhattan.

At 4 pm on Tuesday, 12 June 2001, the SCP returned to the Okasional 
Cafe and prepared to perform It's OK, Officer. Inspired by the SCP's 
presentation the previous evening, and by the fact that their squat 
is watched by two different surveillance cameras, several people -- 
including Stacy, Jay, Ruth, Norm and Alex -- took part in the 
peripatetic performance. Substantially enriched by the use of hats, 
umbrellas, masks and other props, the performance began as soon as 
the group exited the squat at 5 pm, and continued until 7:30 pm, when 
the troupe finally returned home. It seems that during the 
performance, the squat was visited by several people who looked 
exactly like police detectives.

At 9 pm on Tuesday, 12 June 2001, the SCP gave a second presentation 
at the Okasional Cafe. In part because the group didn't want to 
repeat itself, and in part because relatively few people showed up, 
the SCP concentrated on showing videotapes and didn't say very much. 
Thanks to Adele, who converted the SCP's compilation tape from NTSC 
to PAL, the group was able to show tapes of several of its 
performances, and not just 1984. And yet, as far as the audience was 
concerned, the SCP still talked too much! Drunk punks ("pissheads") 
in the audience heckled and even interrupted the SCP's reading of the 
list of military entities that monitor its web site. "What's this got 
to do with me?" seemed to be their question. "I don't have a 
computer." The SCP tried to explain that ownership or even use of a 
computer wasn't the point, and that high-speed, Echelon-type military 
technology would soon be used in the surveillance cameras that 
monitor Manchester's streets. The point wasn't taken, and the 
heckling continued. Very displeased with the way things were turning 
out -- problems such as these had been occurring more and more 
frequently in recent days -- the organizers of the event decided to 
shut the doors early. The next day, they decided to close the squat 
for a few months and re-open it in the fall.

On Wednesday, 13 June 2001, the SCP traveled from Manchester to 
London, where the group stayed for the remainder of its tour. At 
approximately 9 pm on Wednesday, the members of the SCP visited the 
studios of Ninja Tune Headquarters in Kennington and were guests on 
the "pirate TV show" hosted by DJ Coldcut (Matt and Mike). Long-time 
SCP admirer and local activist Bongo was also in attendance. With 
help from Bill's friend Jason, the SCP (Kimberly included) held up 
pieces of paper that bore upon them such familiar slogans as "We know 
you are watching," "Mind your own business" and "Who watches the 
watchers?" The group also performed God's Eyes Here on Earth and 
screened several of its videotapes. Though the SCP's appearance on 
the show was thrown together at the very last minute, it came off 
rather well, thanks to the creativity, resourcefulness and technical 
expertise of Matt and Mike.

Between 10 am and noon on Thursday, 14 June 2001, the SCP (minus 
Kimberly) visited the studios of News of the World, a British 
satellite-based TV show that airs in China, Indonesia and Australia. 
Though Bill was the only member of the SCP scheduled to be 
interviewed, both Miranda and Susan came along. On the way to the TV 
studio, a group of construction workers saw the SCP (a group of 
people dressed all in black and carrying large placards) and in a 
marvelously amicable and respectful way inquired, "Wot are we 
protesting today?" (The answer was "Nothing, and everything.") Before 
the interview took place, the SCP got a chance to catch a glimpse of 
the footage that Roddy Mansfield shot in Bath: it looked quite good. 
The interview itself, however, was something of a disappointment. 
Though Bill was told he might have the opportunity to debate the 
merits of surveillance cameras with a British policeman, no debate 
took place. Instead, the interviewers posed a few questions to the 
two guests, who didn't get a chance to speak to each other directly 
on camera. Everyone in the SCP noticed that the questions posed to 
the policeman (a Superintendent Morris) were far more confrontational 
and difficult than the questions that were posed to Bill. Though the 
show will certainly be very favorable towards the SCP, the group 
would have liked a more level "playing field," especially since 
Morris was a decent, thoughtful man who was not unconditionally in 
favor of the use of surveillance cameras in public places. (For 
example, he noted that one could never be sure that the occurrence of 
fewer speeding violations could reasonably be attributed to the 
installation of surveillance cameras, and not something like the 
weather.)

Over lunch on Thursday, 14 June 2001, the SCP (minus Kimberly) was 
interviewed by Megan, a reporter from a London-based magazine called 
YearZero.

Between 6 pm and 8 pm on Friday, 15 June 2001, the SCP (Kimberly 
included) performed It's OK, Officer along London's Oxford Street, a 
posh street completely given over to the sale of commodities. This 
performance was photographed by both Megan and the police officers 
who monitor the feeds coming from "their" surveillance cameras. At 
precisely 7 pm, at the corner of Duke Street and Oxford Street, one 
of these cameras swiveled around, pointed directly at the performers, 
and followed them when they moved on. The same thing happened at 
precisely 7:13 pm, at the corner of Portman Street and Oxford Street.

In part because the SCP didn't use costumes, which keep the mood 
light, and in part because there are many more surveillance cameras 
operating in public in London than in Manchester, the London 
performance of It's OK, Officer was far more serious than the one the 
SCP gave in Manchester on Tuesday, 12 June 2001. Without planning to 
do so, Bill, at the front of the line of walking performers, found 
himself concluding his part of the performance by giving each 
surveillance camera the group encountered a Nazi-style salute. Like 
the others in the line, he was strongly affected by the gesture. As 
for the passers-by who saw the performance, their reactions were 
generally very favorable.

Between 1 pm and 4 pm on Saturday, 16 June 2001, the SCP (Kimberly 
included) participated in a rain-soaked but still very large rally 
and march in favor of the de-criminalization of possessing, growing 
and/or using marijuana. Along with tens of thousands of people, the 
SCP rallied in Kennington Park and then marched en masse to Brockwell 
Park in Brixton. At all times, a police helicopter hovered overhead, 
taking pictures. Holding aloft the two boards that make up We know 
you are watching: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!, the SCP were a very big 
hit with both the other marchers and the police. At three different 
times and places -- 2:10 pm, at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and 
Dordell Street; 2:10 pm, at the corner of Brighton Terrrace and 
Atlantic Avenue, and 2:30 pm, at the corner of Windrush Square and 
Effra Road -- the SCP was rather obviously watched and videotaped by 
a surveillance camera.

At noon on Sunday, 17 June 2001, the SCP (Kimberly included) and 
Jason performed God's Eyes Here on Earth in front of St. Paul's 
Cathedral in London. Like the one at the Abbey Church in Bath, this 
performance was a disappointment. Few people were on hand to see it, 
and those who were on hand were mostly tourists. Mark from Reclaim 
the Streets was on hand and took pictures.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact the Surveillance Camera Players
By snail mail: SCP c/o NOT BORED! POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New 
York City 10009-9998





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