record – LABS

Thesis Info

Other Supervisor(s): Danny Rozin, Daniel Shiffman, Marisa Olson, Raffi Krikorian

URL where full thesis can be found: itp.nyu.edu/projects_documents/1210617339_ECM-NNW-Thesis.pdf

Keywords: activism, domestic surveillance, education, information manipulation, network security, power relations, public, simulation, terrorism, text analysis, ubiquitous computing

Abstract: 200-500 words: In this paper, I will be discussing means by which to increase awareness about network security and power relations embedded within networks through a sprawling multidisciplinary art project that takes on the guise of an official government backed community domestic eavesdropping group, The Neighborhood Network Watch. The creation of this fictitious group came into being as a result of research on: activism and cyber activism; panopticism; centralized, decentralized, distributed power structures; contemporary domestic eavesdropping and intelligence operations; digital eavesdropping methods and tactics; globalization; hyperreality; simulation; the topology and distribution of networks; wireless networks. The Neighborhood Network Watch itself is a simulation of what could be a next step for domestic eavesdropping that is based off of leveraging the community to spy upon itself with readily available consumer electronics and free software which many people already use on a daily basis. The Neighborhood Network Watch serves as an entry point to for the public to become educated and begin their own personal investigations into how both everyday electronics can be used for ulterior purposes and how data is transferred over networks and can be used by hegemons. The end goal of the Neighborhood Network Watch is to engage the public in critical discourse about technology, the malleability of information, and power relations.