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Carnivore è un software di sorveglianza simile a quello utilizzato dall’FBI per controllare i dati che passano in internet; PoliceState funziona come un client di Carnivore, usando i dati provenienti da questo software per mettere in movimento 20 modellini di auto della polizia radiocomandati. I dati provenienti da Carnivore sono filtrati per cercare parole chiave che possano essere associate al terrorismo. Queste parole attivano un corrispondente codice radio operativo della polizia, che trasformato in comando di movimento viene trasmesso alle piccole auto, che si muovono tutte assieme in modo coreografico, mentre una voce diffonde il messaggio da un altoparlante. |
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In questo modo, dice Cohen, “i dati spiati dalle autorità sono gli stessi usati per controllare i loro veicoli. Questo significa un rovesciamento del controllo dell’informazione di cui la polizia si è appropriata, usando quella stessa informazione per controllare loro.” E’ con semplici operazioni come questa che Cohen riesce a creare interessanti “circuiti alternativi” di significato, rimettendo in circolo le informazioni per usarle in modo inaspettato, usando il meccanismo del sovvertimento. |
 PoliceState installed at the DarkLight Digital Festival |
 PoliceState control interface |
Carnivore is the third incarnation of surveillance software such as Etherpeek and Omnivore created by the FBI to snoop data (email, urls, Instant Messages, etc...) sent through ISPs. Despite the FBI's justification that using Carnivore advances the war on domestic and foreign terrorism, its use has unearthed many questions regarding its constitutionality. Infringements on personal privacy, free speech, Internet regulation, and the formulation of Echelon - a parsing agent for suspicious words, all bring Carnivore's existence into question. |
 PoliceState installed at the DEAF03 (Dutch Electronic Art Festival) |
PoliceState is a Carnivore client that attempts to reverse the surveillance role of law enforcement into a subservient one for the data being gathered. The client consists of a fleet of 20 radio controlled police vehicles that are all simultaneously controlled by data coming into the main client. The client looks for packet information relating to domestic US terrorism. Once found, the text is then assigned to an active police radio code, translated to its binary equivalent, and sent to the array of police cars as a movement sequence. In effect, the data being "snooped" by the authorities is the same data used to control the police vehicles. Thus the police become puppets of their own surveillance. This signifies a reversal of the control of information appropriated by police by using the same information to control them. |
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The project consists of a software and hardware component. The client connects to CarnivorePE and grabs incoming packet information from the local network. This data is then parsed and checked against keywords having to do with domestic US terrorism. If a word is found it then assigns a police code to all 20 RC cars all tuned to the same 27Mhz frequency which allows them to move together as one. All police codes called refer to possible threats of domestic U.S. terrorism such as "10-79" for bomb threat or "1000" for plane crash. The cars move in tightly choreographed patterns for each police code while sirens sound and a police officer's voice relays the message over loudspeakers. |
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