Project #5 Anti-Surveillance Tool

Austin Bailey

CC Lecture - Shirley Leung & Aarati Akkapeddi

https://editor.p5js.org/AustinBB/sketches/CUvZh7PUBe

Design Process

My sketch is based off the meme Birds Aren’t Real. The story behind the meme is that the birds that we see in our world, specifically in major cities, aren’t actually birds but cameras in disguise that were created by the government to survey us at all times. Hiding surveillance in plain sight.

Of course, this is impossible but it does hold some value. Specifically, as a tool to connect individuals to the seriousness of how we are constantly surveyed without our consent. Often when talking about data or cybersecurity, the eyes of many non-tech minds glaze over making it hard to communicate the importance of being secure. The Birds Aren’t Real theory digests the complex issue of surveillance that is unwarranted onto the general public, creating a metaphor that hits home for anyone.

I wanted to visualize the shock one might feel when they realize that they are being surveyed constantly without knowing. In other words finding out that birds are government spies. To do this I needed to create an unsettling depiction of a pigeon, subtly revealing that they are actually cameras. Along with this, I wanted to create a feeling of dizziness or violation that comes with being betrayed. I added two vertical lines of red and black which gives the viewer a sense of vertigo while watching the birds move across the screen. Upon further inspection, one can see that birds are not real.