1 Grey Street, Wellington

Opening May 27, 5.30pm

May 28 - Jun 13, 2015

Wed - Fri 12-5pm, Sat 12-3pm

The Surveillance Awareness Bureau creates a space for critical discussion about systems of surveillance, and awareness of the issues around privacy, liberty, control and abuse they raise.

This pop-up office –located in a vacant retail space in Wellington's CBD– features some of the alternatives that artists, designers, scholars and journalists can propose to highlight the tension and risks between seeing and not seeing the effects of technologies in our quotidian. It exalts the vulnerability of humans in that constant non-illuminated space that is control framed by unawareness.

Curated by Modelab, the project brings together an exciting range of international and New Zealand contributors with a public programme: Zach Blas (USA), James Bridle (UK), Paolo Cirio (IT/USA), Simon Denny (NZ), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (MEX), Hemi Macgregor (NZ), Ruben Pater (NL), and Terri Te Tau (NZ).

Not a single day passes without news of trust breaches and information misuse of data in all levels, from the common individual to states and international organizations. But while certain technologies can be considered even as predators for privacy, there is already counterarguments that choose the same technologies and deploy them as tool of resistance or as a crucial democratic element that can link individuals with the wider social and political environment they live in.

The Surveillance Awareness Bureau draws attention to the multiple ambiguous forms of surveillance that could be positioned along a spectrum from “care” to “control”—from watching to enhance the care and safety, to suspiciously scrutinize one’s attitudes and behaviours in order to govern, influence or impose someone else will upon individuals, societies and states.

Public Programme

Open Talk: Thu, June 4, 5.30 pm.

Ubiquitous surveillance: The digital footprint of lost privacy

Thomas Beagle is the spokesperson for Tech Liberty NZ, defending civil liberties in the digital age. He works in IT and is also the chairperson of the NZ Council for Civil Liberties.

Kathleen M Kuehn is a lecturer in media studies at Victoria University. Her research centres on digital media and cultural production. She is currently working on a book about mass surveillance and privacy in New Zealand.

Moderated by arts writer Mark Amery

Privacy enhancing tools workshop (BYOD): Sat, June 13, 2.00pm

Matthew Holloway is a part-time security researcher and programmer. He recently launched https://insiderer.com/ to reveal information about leaked information in files.

Artists' talk: Sat, June 13, 3.00pm

Hemi Macgregor, Terri Te Tau and curator Claudia Arozqueta

With the support of the Wellington City Creative Communities and the Urban Dream Brokerage.