A year ago(!) I “directed” a month long performance by Marisa Olson called “Marisa Writes her Dissertation: an endurance performance in 31 Acts.” For all of September 2008, Marisa wrote while webcam shots and screencaps of her desktop were automatically uploaded to the net every 60 seconds. This gesture of transparency was a continuation of Olson’s research into the role of sousveillance: she was partly working on dynamics of surveillance, sousveillance, and protest art in network culture. So it fit perfectly.
My brother, Stephen Mandiberg, asked me to retool the scripts for his first year PhD examinations. While Stephen is not directly researching surveillance, he responds well to external pressures. And is also somewhat of an exhibitionist at heart. So I helped him broadcast his EPIC WIN over his exams.
I stripped the code of any sensitive FTP info, and I am releasing the code as a zip file: Autosouveillance.zip Please note there are no instructions, no warranties, and no plans on updating this code. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the exact right way to make all these steps happen. There was no good example available, so hopefully this will help someone. I release it GPL (though there is no way to indicate that in the code itself.) Go to town!
Internet Art
