April 2011, Recyclart, Brussels
This was a walk in which participants experiment with low-key shields against being watched by surveillance camera’s. Starting at Recyclart in Brussels, we visited some nearby relevant locations; where camera signals could be captured, where we could play in view of installed camera’s.
We passed by the ‘Parking Panorama‘ (Rue Van Helmont): a circular building now used as an indoor parking, that once housed the panorama canvas painted by Louis Dumoulin in 1912 for the celebration of the first centenary of the battle of Waterloo, where we looked at documentation of the Street with a View project by Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley.
We created our own ‘satellite view’ using camera’s suspended from helium balloons.
A paper guide to the walk was produced. Download a PDF here.
Prior to the walk, we printed out some images of doorsteps that were captured from surveillance camera’s. The prints were mounted on sticks. When hold up to the same camera from which the images originated, they camouflage the space below the image. See a demonstration in this video.
A news item was broadcasted by the popular television program ‘Flanders today / Vlaanderen Vandaag’ on VT4 in which some of the aims and methods of the walk are explained. (See video here, Dutch only)
Flemish radiostation Radio 1 broadcasted a report of the walks in the program De Ochtenden. (Dutch) (Download soundfile here)
Newspaper De Morgen published a short article on the walks (Dutch). Read a pdf here