Surveillance Society

By only

Thursday September 1, 2005

The Eyes of Laura are Watching You

It turns out I’m pretty fucking gullible. Over the past month I became consumed with the Eyes of Laura –a suspenseful blog by a bored Vancouver Art Gallery security guard who hacked into a security camera just above Robson Square. Along with allowing users to control the camera and watch live footage, there are journal updates that show clips of crazy people and unfolding crimes. Well, during my interview with “Laura,” I found out that it’s all the work of renown audio artist Janet Cardiff. Playing off the 70s thriller, Eyes of Laura Mars, Cardiff uses the Website and the camera to lure people into Laura’s mystery.

Only: You’ve got a really interesting website. How did you get it going?

Janet: Do you know that it’s an art project?

Only: Oh?

J: I’m never sure whether to tell people, but it’s gotten out enough and I don’t like to keep up the fiction with writers, because if you’re writing in public then you can get very embarrassed.

Only: So the characters aren’t real?

J: (laughing) You’re right. They’re not real.

Only: Oh, man. I had my suspicions. At first I thought there’s no way, but then I got wrapped up in it.

J: That’s a problem when people contact Laura, because I often keep up the fiction. The whole journal has run through a couple of times and the first time through I basically let people believe it was a person. It was originally commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery as a public art work.

Only: Okay, because I’m sitting there thinking, ‘How is she doing this? How is she getting away with this?’ I was totally blown away.

J: It was shot from the security camera and some of the ideas came directly from sitting there watching the security camera. But I did work it in collaboration with a writer from Toronto and the web designer was from Montréal. So it was a bit of a cumbersome project.

Only: This does change my piece.

J: (laughing) I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell you or not. But then I thought it’s not really fair for the writer. But it was part of the whole thing to keep up the fiction.

Only: I’ll have to talk to my editor, but maybe there’s a way to write it as if it is real.

J: I like the idea of keeping the fiction. That would be perfect. I’m not a very good liar.

Only: So, where did the idea for this project come from then?

J: It was from the LiveWave technology. It’s a technology that allows you to access cameras live and control them. It came from finding this on the web and the Vancouver Art Gallery asked me to do a project and I thought why don’t we combine it and put a camera on the art gallery.

Only: So does it tape things? How does get it monitored?

J: It doesn’t get taped. It only got taped when we were producing the piece. So basically it’s just live footage and there’s a computer guy that checks on it. But otherwise it’s just a web project.

Only: It’s got this whole ‘Rear Window’ thing going on.

J: Yeah, it’s fascinating watching people. It pulls totally into that security camera culture on the web and how people love to watch. But it’s also the isolation of the person behind the camera. No one ever thinks about all these security cameras.

Only: I have to admit that I felt like a creep for using the camera. Did you find that yourself?

J: I’ve done many audio walks and it’s very much about how it makes people feel. The interaction between them and carrying a disc man around or an iPod and it’s very personal. I find that an interesting subtext to how people feel this sense of intimacy but it’s also creepy too.

Only: Well it worked. I was totally fooled.

J: Good.