Eye on RPI
Video Installation (2001)
Eye on RPI is designed to fool the viewer into thinking they have stumbled upon an actual Public Safety officer’s desk. A video monitor displays the multiplexed image of four video feeds. Scan lines and digital readouts are visible on each video feed, labeling the site of surveillance. The video shifts from one location to the next.
A newspaper, checklist, coffee mug, and a pack of doughnuts rest on the table. One donut has a bite taken out of it, as if the officer has just gotten up to use the bathroom or has been called away on duty.
During pre-production of this installation, I gathered the vantage points of every camera I could find on campus by holding up a digital camera to the lens of the actual surveillance video camera. Documentation of surveillance cameras were made available to students via a personal web site on RPI.edu. The purpose of this installation was mainly to inform RPI students about the level of surveillance on campus and to generate a discussion about privacy and civil liberty concerns regarding the devices. Furthermore, is there a fairer climate when the person who is subject to the surveillance gains access to the information? How does someone feel when they realize how often a video camera is watching their every movement?
upon the installation on campus thought it was indeed real, thus coming away with the notion that Public Safety was attempting to hide it’s surveillance operations. This was my intent, after the Chief of Public Safety was reluctant to disclose the location of cameras and information regarding a FBI agent who was stationed on campus, that according to rumor, monitored the Internet traffic of several campuses in the Albany Capital Region.
