Domains19: Martin Hawksey’s Minority Report

And the hits for Domains19 just keep on coming….and this one comes all the way from Scotland with none other than Martin Hawksey, who is both creating a surveillance installation for the conference as well as speaking to how he built it using services anyone can sign-up for and a Raspberry Pi while extrapolating the broader implications of this brave new world of ubiquitous surveillance. Here is the abstract:

Welcome to my world of good and bad, right and wrong, a neo-noir landscape where technology simultaneously creates possibilities to empower and reclaim part of the web, but also quickly reveals the extent of our data traces, the ease in which we can be surveilled, the dangers of walking through a world where ‘individual consent’ is replaced with ‘social consent’ where privacy has to asked for rather than assumed.

In this talk we’ll look at privacy and surveillance, data ownership and accessibility. As part of this we will cast a light on the shadowy world of face recognition, passive wifi tracking and more. As part of this we’ll look at issues such as personal rights as well as gender and racial bias. My plan is to ultimately make you all join #TeamLuddite – not against technology or inept at using it, not against “the future” but ready to interrogate the moral and ethical implications of the choices we make.  

The idea for having Martin speak at Domains was a happy accident while speaking with both Maren Deepwell and Martin about ideas for OER19. He had done something wild with a Raspberry Pi and facial recognition at DevFest London in 2017, and when I was talking about the conference themes around Domains19 he linked me to his post on the talk. I was immediately sold, this kind of Minorty Report-esque installation that explores the ethical boundaries of the tech we have come to take for granted is exactly what we were hoping Domains19 would manifest, and Martin was soon after signed-on for the third, of what will be four, featured presentations/installation.

Stay tuned for more, and if you haven’t already, be sure to submit a presentation and/or installation. What’s more, registration is open as well—so run, don’t walk, over to Domains19 and join the party.