radically transparent

tad hirsh of the medialab’s smart cities group is a remarkable techno-artist whose work subverts the oppressive nature of computer technology to defend people in need. a quick survey of his work:

we know that cell phones can be used to spy on us, so it follows that they can also be used to spy for us: in the tripwire project, cell phones disguised as coconuts are used to record and broadcast noise pollution from airports over the typically poor areas surrounding them.

while police and military have sophisticated communications systems to organize their movements, we the people are easily cornered and dispersed. until now – with TXTmob, you can broadcast text messages to a group of people to organize them against a better equipped opponent.

mapping software is useful for finding places, but what if you don’t want to be found? with iSee you can plan trips through manhattan designed to avoid being captured on security cameras. unfortunately the project was done five years ago, and it’s probably not possible any more…