VOME has developed a series of digital interventions to test hypothesis about how people would engage with awareness technologies. The video above explains the approach and shares some of the outcomes of the research.

Download the full Powerpoint presentation here: Digital provocations presentation

Here’s a  film StrangeStorm made for us, explaining what we got up to.

When we asked Hudson’s youth project if they would like to work on a participatory video project with us, we were expecting a talking heads documentary, looking at young people’s perspectives on online privacy. We did get one of those, but they also asked us if we could help them produce a music video. They presented us with this and we were rather impressed. Sadly, Hudson’s Youth Project closed in July 2011 due to funding cuts.

The video and the song touch upon many issues of online privacy, technology and surveillance, such as the sale of personal data, identity management, identity fraud. It emphasises the ambiguity of trying to figure out what are the best actions for young people to take in an environment of online ‘sharing’.

Help Margareth the Clown and a team of artists build a picture of Britain on-line in 2011 and add your voice to the Internet safety debate!!

When: Saturday 29th October 12.00 – 4.00pm and Sunday 30th October 11.00 – 2.00pm

Where: Middlesbrough Railway Station

What: Art activities and performance art for all the family

This activity is run by the VOME research project and is part of the national Festival of Social Science.

VOME is a research project about on-line privacy, run by Royal Holloway University of London, Cranfield and Salford Universities together with Sunderland City Council and Consult Hyperion.

The aim of this event is to encourage the public to share their thoughts about on-line identity and take part in art activities that help us build a sound and visual art collage about on-line safety. All participants will be given a £5.00 voucher to spend at the railway station’s Travellers Rest Cafe.

Hosting an event such as this is a valuable component of the VOME research strategy as it allows us to use art to engage with members of the public on topics related to internet safety.

Participants will be able to:

• Watch performance art on topics related to on-line safety
• Take part in making an art collage
• Develop self-portraits
• Help build our whispering secrets wall

VOME Workshop: What does Privacy Look Feel and Sound Like? Athina Antoniadou from VOME on Vimeo.

Link here read Freya’s complete thoughts on the presentation

VOME Workshop: what does Privacy Look Feel and Sound Like? Karina Townsend from VOME on Vimeo.

Karina Townsend is a bit of a music geek.  As a girl, she would wait in great anticipation for her favorite music to be played on the radio.  When it came on, she would quickly push the ‘record’ button of her cassette player, capturing it on tape.  She still looks back on this time with a certain amount of nostalgia.  Karina enjoyed the waiting, and excitement of managing to capture her favorite songs.  During this time she built up quite a personal historic archive of the music played then.

I really like the idea of doing that.  –I mean, of Karina doing that.  Me?  No thanks.  The truth is, I would find the waiting part of it too hard to endure.

At the moment waiting for anything at all actually drives me nuts, bonkers, crazy, on the brink of insanity.  I’ve waited enough in my life.  Why do I have to wait, if I can do and have something here and now, instantly?

Link here to read Freya’s complete thoughts on Karina’s presentation

VOME Workshop: What does Privacy Look Feel and Sound Like? Viv Corringham from VOME on Vimeo.

Viv Corringham is a Sound Artist who communicates other people’s private thoughts. She listens and records them during a walk of their familiar route, walking by their side, later to re-walk their route on her own, singing to their stories she’s listened to.  She calls the recordings ‘Shadow walks’ and says her voice becomes a ‘ghost’ of the memories and associates.  Viv says people literally undress for a sound recording, as they would for if being painted; being painted or recorded merging into a space where people reveal privacy in different forms.

Link here to read Freya’s complete thoughts on Viv’s presentation

“In this provocation, Justin Durrel reflects on notions of anonymity and the power it can give us. Justin contextualises the opening of his talk in the US interview: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/375428/february-24-2011/corporate-hacker-tries-to-take-down-wikileaks which sadly we can’t show in the UK. However, nevertheless, Justin raises a number of interesting questions and challenges some of our traditional research notions of anonymity. The second part of the film shows a very energetic interaction between researchers and artists in which some of the roles of anonymity in society are debated.”

More details on the workshop, its objectives and an outline of the process can be found here

Justin Durrel – Pt 1 from VOME on Vimeo.

Justin Durrel – Pt 2 from VOME on Vimeo.

Justin Durrel is accelerating forwards as an artist and theatre-maker.  His knowledge of the web is vast, his thoughts fresh and on the beat, naming things as is – he certainly does not beat around the bush.  From Baltimore he comes to Europe bearing his cultural roots with pride.

‘I don’t believe that privacy exists on the net, I don’t actually believe that privacy exists anywhere anyway’, Justin says.  He thinks this thing about wanting privacy is a modern day phenomena, historically we were content to live much closer, more people living in the same space, close knit communities – there wasn’t much privacy then, he says.

Link here to read Freya’s complete thoughts on Justin’s presentation

More details on the workshop, its objectives and an outline of the process can be found here

There’s so much there in Rika Deyricke’s presentation.  You’ll see Rika  captured on film with her own craziness and fun, with a tiny pinch of vulnerability and a depth of thought.  ‘The only truth we have at our disposal is hidden within us, unless of course, we elect to share it with others.’ Rika quotes from Simon Lane.

Rika Deryckere from VOME on Vimeo.

Link here to read Freya’s complete thoughts on Rika’s presentation.