Josh Harris, Video Interactive System, Interactive Technology, Video Interaction - Manhattan, New York, Bangkok

Quiet

Josh Harris hired us to create a networked video interactive system for a two-week-long art experiment culminating on New Year’s Eve 1999. The system enabled mass surveillance and live video interaction between capsule-like pods. The event was shut down by the NY police and fire departments as the sun came up on first day of the new millennium.

Live-human media laboratory in a NYC basement

Quiet inmates surrounded by the usual surveillance gear.

Master Control -- counting down to the new millennium.

Of course, the toilets were in public too.

We Live in Public

Josh then hired us to wire his Manhattan loft with 32 video cameras, microphones and an array of sensors that would track the occupants’ every move, while a computer automatically edited the feeds. The telephones were also tapped and included in the audio feed. The 2009 film “We Live in Public” chronicles both of our projects with Josh in detail.

No secrets. No privacy. Everything in public.

Myself and Kevin Centanni in the Control Room -- circa 2000.

One of the many auxiliary cams -- in the oddest of places.

No comment...video motion detection in action.

Camera layout in the loft. The grids on the ceiling supported the sensor arrays. We used very narrow-angle PIR sensors throughout.