Found Art

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… as if you were being filmed

22 March 2008 in Found Art by Stilgherrian | No comments

Photograph of note written on tissue paper

This note, scribbled on a piece of tissue paper, was found lying in the gutter outside a house where someone had obviously just moved out.

The text reads: “I wish you a fan-fucking-tastic life! Fuck hard as if you were being filmed! Your friend, Marek.”

Now this little piece of Found Art has been sitting in my files for at least a couple of years, so I wonder whether Marek’s friend has indeed had a fan-fucking-tastic life?

I also wonder why being filmed would make you more likely to “fuck hard” — and I’m assuming here that fucking “hard” is considered to be an improvement over any other kind of fucking. Personally, I suspect I’d find the presence of the camera to interfere with my confident enjoyment of the process and lead to performance anxiety — but maybe that’s just me.

And now, the fear sets in: what sorts of comments am I going to get on this post?

It’s been a while since I posted the first Found Art object. I’ll try to choose one from the files more regularly.

Privacy Manifesto for Web 2.0

09 January 2008 in Found Art, Internet, Privacy by Stilgherrian | 1 comment

As everyone pours their personal lives into Facebook et al, what happens to it? Some companies reckon they own it all. Others reckon they can change the rules at any time, and just tell you afterwards.

Alec Saunders has proposed a Privacy Manifesto for the Web 2.0 Era (and you can follow that link for some discussion of the why):

  1. Every customer has the right to know what private information is being collected. That rules out any secret data collection schemes, as well as monitoring regimes that the customer hasn’t agreed to in advance. It also rules out any advertising scheme that relies on leaving cookies on a customer’s hard disk without the customer’s consent.
  2. Every customer has the right to know the purpose for which the data is being collected, in advance. Corporations must spell out their intent, in advance, and not deviate from that intent. Reasonable limits must be imposed on the collection of personal information that are consistent with the purpose for which it is being collected. Furthermore, the common practice of inserting language into privacy policies stating that the terms may be modified without notice should be banned. If the corporation collecting data wishes to change its policy then it’s incumbent upon the corporation to obtain the consent of customers in advance.
  3. Each customer owns his or her personal information. Corporations may not sell that information to others without the customer’s consent. Customers may ask, at any time, to review the personal information collected; to have the information corrected, if that information is in error; and to have the information removed from the corporation’s database.
  4. Customers have a right to expect that those collecting their personal information will store it securely. Employees and other individuals who have access to that data must treat it with the same level of care as the organization collecting it is expected to.

Hat tip to Peter Black.

Found Art: The Suspect’s Property

28 September 2007 in Found Art by Stilgherrian | 2 comments

The Suspect's Property

A new semi-regular feature, Gentle Readers. Found Art. Objects which I’ve stumbled across in the street.

Today, a Returned Property Docket from the NSW Police Service. It records in detail (and fairly poor typing) exactly what was being carried by S– when he was detained at the Newtown police station, and which was subsequently returned at 2.24am on a Saturday morning.

A life, in summary.

Don’t worry, S–, I’ve shredded the original. Though if you were concerned about your privacy you wouldn’t have thrown it into the street.

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