the BACKPACK PROJECT by derek lomas

Clear backpacks are mandated in many high risk schools as an anti-gun and anti-drug measureClear backpacks allow teachers to keep constant watch over the posessions of studentsClear backpacks are both an icon and an apparatus for total surveillance

ArtSpace distributed over 200 clear vinyl backpacks to artists, designers, teachers, students, and academics around ConnecticutFor the first night of the show, everyone returned wearing their packs.Each pack was a three-dimentional canvas.

Joseph Kuhn

Derek Lomas is a designer of collaborative social environmentsthat empower the distributed production of art and ideas.

Derek has aspirations to:1. Radically change the structure of formal education2. Help start a new University and/or Country 3. Operate a fleet of luxury dirigibles

www.cognitiveculture.com

-Grew up in Cleveland, Ohio-Went to Yale undergrad

-Studied Cognitive Science-“fell in love with brains”

Derek LomasProject Coordinator

Artspace is an artist and volunteer-run contemporary arts non-profit whose mission is:To catalyze artistic effortsTo connect artists, audiences, and resourcesTo redefine "art spaces”

www.artspacenh.org

ArtSpace

•200 clear vinyl safety backpacks - Post-Columbine

•June 14th, 2002 artists, designers, teachers, students, and academics wear their packs to the gallery

•Packs hung on the wall of the library

•Exhibition travels with selections in December 2002

Dereks Lomas’s Statement:

We are all aware of the increasing loss of personal privacy within our turbulent postmodern society. The Backpack Project is a public art event that seeks to explore the flip side of privacy: transparency. Through this community event, we hope to discover honesty and personal expression.

Clear backpacks are being mandated in many high-risk schools as a way to facilitate the search for guns, drugs, and other prohibited items in schools. This has resulted in student opposition over the lack of personal privacy--after all, everyone can see what is inside your bag!

Join us to explore the potential benefits of transparency in The Backpack Project: A public art event that seeks to transform this symbol of our chaotic culture into a symbol of your personal artistic identity. Show us where your imagination leads you!

I think the transparent backpack project is cool. … I'm conflicted about transparency. It sounds reasonable in theory, but in fact the folks with power end up controlling the situation such that "transparency" as promised -- a two-way street -- is false. It is away for the powerful to sell the idea of omnipresent surveillance to the populace: "Hey, none of us have anything to hide, so lets all be cool with letting everyone see everything. You can see us and we can see you. We're all in this together afterall.”

When in fact, the folks in power reveal little if anything. Thus, we end up being watched more and more, while the folks in power --calling it transparency -- only, in fact, let us see what they want us to see.

Natalie Jeremijenko’s Statement:

Is the clear backpack a surveillance camera without the camera, another icon of Big Brother?

With a surveillance camera, there is unequal access to the gathered information…

Like the video camera, transparent backpacks can function as a tool of surveillance. However, unlike with video cameras, the access to information is equal--everybody can see the content…

When compulsory, the bags are obviously ineffective in deterring violence, weapons and drugs. Tampons are a great place to hide pills; sweaters, to conceal guns. Individuals still control what is exposed inside the backpack and what is not. If the backpack is transparent it will not be used as a private space, leading to other attempts to conceal (on the body or in hair, for instance).

On the other hand, transparent bags can become their own form of expression … The social relations spurred by the transparent backpack simply redefine the boundaries of private space…

The transparent backpacks demonstrate how we can use transparent design in a participatory democracy. Transparency doesn't necessarily violate privacy, nor remove the threat of violence in schools, nor remove abuse of power. Visibility in the right context, be it online or off, can enable interactions and communities of shared interest. …

The transparent exhibition is a call for an open information society. How we collectively design the future depends on using transparency to reinforce privacy, and constituting participatory democracy in our schools and communities.

Richard Glen Boire - Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics UC Davis

Drugs and guns can kill the students but clear back packs will never stop that. -Emil Serrano grade 10

Walking the halls with a transparent book bag is like walking naked...Although people know what we have, we don't want people to see it. That's why we cover ourselves. -Robby Perez

I think the the clear back pack will prove that kids are not as innocent as adults think we are. It would show things that we don't want other people to see, like pads, creams for private area, condoms, etc. This would make people think different about us. -Yaritza Rivera grade 11

The people carrying big locking black leather briefcases are the ones making up these rules! I, being a teenage women DEMAND the right to my privacy and have the right to carry my personal items. I would find it very embarrassing to be forced to put my :time of the month" product into a clear bag to be displayed to to the whole student population. It is an invasion of privacy. -Jasmine Capeles grade 12

How would adults feel if they had to bring a clear bag to work? Just because we are kids, does not mean that we can't be treated with the same respect as adults. -Violeta Coloma grade 11

Student Comments

Conceptual Backpack:

A seemingly normal looking backpack full of seemingly normal looking school stuff. Next to pack a list of what is hidden within, a knife, a gun, drugs, bomb, etc.-Matthew Feiner

JemLiz Norris

Illuminating John and Lucy’s MarriageMaryann Ott

Cain & Abel, 2002Mary Anne Crowley

Sex Education: FNina Bently

Few realize that, by the end of 2005, all mobile phone users will be tracked to within 50 meters, as a result of the FCC ﾕ s E911 mandate (allowing authorities to locate the position of mobile phones that make emergency calls).

The "Transparent City" is a city modeled in 3-dimensions using only the positions of small orbs, representing individual mobile phones.

The functional forms of a city modeled entirely by human motion will quickly emerge from the overall behavior of the data-points. Streets and highways will be easily identified through the collective action of orbs flying by at 50 miles an hour. Beautiful, organic skyscrapers will be elucidated through the thousands of stacked orbs, mostly motionless at their desks-- while some orbs show the subtle motions of humans walking through an office, or traveling up and down elevators. By speeding up the rate of time, one will observe these human towers rise and fall with the beginning and end of the work day.

Users of the "Transparent City" will assume the role of a high-ranking government official. ﾊ Transparent City will seek to create an interface that allows for the integration of multiple databases of information. As an example, users may be able to set the brightness of the orbs to be proportionate to personal income (darkening Harlem and illuminating the financial district). More disturbingly, users will be able to tap any on-going phone call in real-time. Furthermore, using tracked call-logs, users will be able to display the interconnected networks of callers, which represent the de-facto social network of a city.

Transparent City