{"id":3183,"date":"2017-11-01T20:35:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T20:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deptford.tv\/?p=1945"},"modified":"2017-11-01T20:35:15","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T20:35:15","slug":"the-glass-room-big-data-privacy-and-interactive-art-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dorothea.tv\/?p=3183","title":{"rendered":"The Glass Room: Big data, privacy and interactive art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 40,000 people visited The Glass Room in London and New York City. Hear<\/a> how Tactical Tech and Mozilla are using immersive art to inform people about data security and privacy.<\/p>\n

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The Glass Room is an immersive, hands-on art experience that teaches people about personal data.<\/p>\n

During two exhibitions, in New York City and London, over 40,000 people learned about how personal data is gathered, how it\u2019s used, and the myriad types of data companies, governments, organisations and others access. A collaboration between Tactical Tech and Mozilla offers lessons in communicating about technical issues like data and privacy. It also provides insights into innovative public engagement strategies.<\/p>\n

For a pedestrian on a busy street of London or New York,\u00a0The Glass Room<\/a>\u00a0is a pop-up \u201ctech store with a twist.\u201d At first glance, it seems to offer the latest in shiny digital consumer products, such as the newest tablet or fitness tracker. But as you go inside, you find there\u2019s nothing for sale. Instead, as you explore you\u2019ll find a selection of art works exploring who is collecting our personal data and why, and what we can do about it.<\/p>\n

The Glass Room brings together art, technology and the aesthetics of consumer retail. Visitors are presented with political questions about the data we share online with or without our knowledge. The exhibition creates a welcoming and accessible space that enables visitors to question their own assumptions about their digital lives and data, and to explore difficult and suppressed questions about their online activities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A Glass Room tour. Photo by David Mirzoeff.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Tactical Tech has partnered with Mozilla to open Glass Room exhibitions in New York and London in the two years since \u00a0opening \u201cThe White Room\u201d in a larger exhibition at the Berlin Haus der Kulturen der Welt.<\/p>\n

Following The Glass Room New York, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reported:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo move through the Glass Room\u2026was to be reminded of the many ways we unwittingly submit ourselves and one another to unnecessary surveillance, with devastating consequences\u2026 I left the Glass Room invigorated by the ways artists are exploring the dark side of our digital footprint.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tactical Tech has worked on data and privacy for some years. We\u2019ve seen many public awareness campaigns on data, privacy and surveillance, struggle to make a significant impact.<\/p>\n

Putting together the Glass Room, we saw an opportunity to work with artists and their work to lead people outside their comfort zone and test their assumptions. By creating an immersive space we were able to test different forms of engagement through art objects, animations and products visitors could take away, such as our Data Detox Kits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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People interacting at the Data Detox Bar. Photo by David Mirzoeff.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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With The Glass Room we hoped we could bring debates and discourse highly prevalent in academia and technology activism to a broader audience. In a sense we hoped to fill the perception gap between niche discussions and issues on technology and popular media depictions of technology, such as Black Mirror, by presenting abstract and often speculative issues as a real-life, tangible, and even tactile, experience.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be a timely intervention as large-scale data harvesting conversations enter more mainstream discourse. We challenged the audience\u2019s willingness to engage with a broader and deeper reflection about the \u201cquantified society,\u201d the impact all-pervasive data sharing is having on our public sphere \u2013 transport, health, education \u2013 as well as on our sense of ourselves.<\/p>\n

Following the success of the White Room in Berlin, we worked closely with Mozilla, artists, and designers from an experiential agency to expand and develop the concept to work in a retail context.<\/p>\n

In both cities before opening, we launched advertising campaigns on billboards, in subway stations and online.<\/p>\n

The exhibit was open for around three weeks in each city and over that period visitor numbers kept growing. By the final weekend in London we had reached our capacity inside and queues formed down the road.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The results:<\/b>\u00a0over 40,000 visitors attended, and there has been widespread media coverage, including articles in the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>,<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>Channel 4 News, the\u00a0BBC<\/a>,\u00a0New Scientist<\/em>,\u00a0Vogue<\/a><\/i>\u00a0and tech media such as\u00a0The Verge<\/em><\/a>. Social media activity was also sparked; for example, a\u00a0Facebook Live event<\/a>\u00a0attracted over 47,000 viewers.<\/p>\n

Audiences have been diverse. The majority of the visitors were ordinary passersby,who were either drawn in when walking past or heard about the exhibition from word of mouth. We attracted tourists, hipsters on the way to the cinema, families on a day out or simply people wandering in while shopping.<\/p>\n

For the exhibits, we partnered with local artists to curate art works to add context and relevance so that the facts about how our personal data is being collected and used could come alive for non-technical visitors. We also installed a \u201cData Detox Bar\u201d \u2013 at the back of the space in New York and right in the centre of the store in London \u2013 where people could pick up a \u201cData Detox Kit<\/a>,\u201d our easy 8-day guide to a digital makeover. We also created dedicated event spaces where we curated programmes involving activists, technologists, journalists, and some of our partner artists, where their own work around data and privacy was presented and discussed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Glass Room visitors, 2017. Photo by Alistair Alexander.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Critically, for both cities, we recruited and trained a local group of \u201cIngeniuses\u201d from diverse backgrounds and communities. Many had no experience in technology or privacy but after a four-day training camp, had enough knowledge to give privacy help and advice. They \u00a0were a constant and welcoming presence in the space, engaging visitors in conversations, providing explanations, and even offering some recommendations when such were sought. They also led workshops, free and open to everyone and to all levels of technical knowledge, with titles such as \u201cWTF \u2013 What the Facebook,\u201d \u201cMastering your Mobile\u201d and \u201cDeGooglize your Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibitions sparked a depth of engagement rarely seen in awareness-raising campaigns. Many visitors stayed for an hour or more; some stayed for an entire day to take free workshops. Lots of people came back for repeat visits, often bringing with them friends or family.<\/p>\n

The Glass Room was open for around 3 weeks in both cities and over that period visitor numbers kept growing. By the final weekend in London we had reached our capacity inside and queues formed down the road.<\/p>\n

In New York and London visitors filled out over 840 feedback cards. Some typical feedback:<\/p>\n

After visiting the Glass Room I feel\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n