Slashdot Mirror

Did you know there are more neo-nazis in America than in Germany?

Yes, and you will find a Confederate battle flag on their car, tattooed on their neck or flying over the fireplace in whatever hovel they live in.

Let's see...

http://www.art-for-a-change.co...

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P3z...

http://www.sighedeffects.com/w...

Also... It looks like something a mildly talented person could do in under an hour in Photoshop.

Which is all Shepard Fairey really has to offer the world. All of his best "work" is borrowed more or less directly from another artist's source materials with little to no modification aside from his brand name.

It may be that Duchamp and Warhol paved the way towards the act of selection being defined as a creative act, but I find it difficult to think of Fairey in the same light. His work isn't breaking barriers, presenting irony, or forcing us to rethink our interpretation of the source material he chooses to use. It is blatantly commercial and self-serving, calling attention to the Fairey brand without adding any value or doing any creative work as part of the process.

'Isn't there now an add compain going on in radio and TV over there telling you if you see strange activity in a house, a person with too many cell phones, or just strange behavior on the street to call a national hotline for terror?'

Indeed there is:

http://www.met.police.uk/so/at_hotline.htm

http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080307-terrorist-campaign-photographers-searched-london

Examples of terrorist paraphenalia include cameras, credit cards, mobile phones, computers, suitcases, cell phones and, err, vans.

This is from the same people who brought us my all time favourite 'public security' campaign:

http://www.art-for-a-change.com/News/eyes.htm

'Aren't there cameras that talk back if you get unruly on the street?'

Generally only if the unruly behaviour is caused by mushroom intoxication. But we do have rather a lot of cameras:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391081-details/George+Orwell,+Big+Brother+is+watching+your+house/article.do

'I love it when arts majors try to emulate Orwell and struggle hard to dream up "dystopian" scenarios in anything and everything to appear sophisticated in the eyes of their colleagues..'

Especially when there's no need to dream up anything - over here on Airstrip One, a far more effective dystopian surveillance system than Google's snapshot is already in place:

"According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2 million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people in the country - and 20 per cent of cameras globally. It has been calculated that each person is caught on camera an average of 300 times daily. Use of spy cameras in modern-day Britain is now a chilling mirror image of Orwell's fictional world, created in the post-war Forties in a fourth-floor flat overlooking Canonbury Square in Islington, North London. On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move."

Welcome to the UK, Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes.

• Mass Surveillance
  
• Police state
  
• Criminalized society
  
• Centraliztion and resale of citizens personal data - without their permission
  
• Fortunately, the inner-party elite that did this to us are about to be expelled
  

NYC is already covered in security cameras, though the situation isn't quite as bad as it is in London yet. Still, the idea that anyone could look at the situation in London and think that's a good model to base your own project on is frightening.

Secure beneath the watchful eyes indeed.

A police officer can stop and question you in the street or a park or other outside place if s/he suspects you of committing an offence or believes that you have witnessed a possible offence. If you are stopped and questioned, you are expected to be co-operative. You must give your name and address to the officer if asked for it. If you don't, this is an offence and you could be arrested. If the police suspect you of committing an offence they may ask you for an explanation of your behaviour. You have the right to refuse to give an explanation. The police may then detain you for questioning for up to 6 hours; or arrest you for allegedly committing an offence.

They have additional powers of detention under new anti-terrorism legislation, but nothing as draconian as what has appeared in the US recently.

Yes there are loads of CCTV cams. Everywhere. They were introduced gradually over the past 20 years and have become such a part of the public concioussness and don't tend to cause general alarm even when displayed as such: http://www.art-for-a-change.com/News/eyes.htm/

Perhaps partly because they are also moderately effective in catching perpetrators of violent crime.

If you think that you're more free in the US, take another look around you my friend. Dig your secret police.

Maintained... to a point. For a little insight on the 'concept' of punk, and specifically the current sad trend of cashing out integrity, take a look at Mark Vallen's commentary on the Clash and Jaguar.

jsfk

"punk is whatever we made it to be" -- D. Boon

ROTFL. You forgot them commie-pinkos at Art-for-Change.