JULIA SCHER Julia Scher, Wonderland, 2018

---------------------------------------------- 1 0 I D E A S T H A T C O N S U M E S E C U R I T Y By Julia Scher Illustration: Antonia Stringer ---------------------------------------------- 1. C H R O N I C C O N S E N T A L E R T N E S S demolition, death, abduction, capture, escape, love, entanglement, resignation. We empathize with the pain or panic of the pursued or share in the joy of the pursuer. 6. D I S T U R B A N C E A R C H I T E C T U R E S H A V E I M A G I N E C O N T R O L U S Every day, at least ten times per day, we click “OK”, “I agree”, “sign here”, “I accept”. We are meant, it appears, to take joy in the journey and move to the next screen, the next paperless transaction. We never know when it is going to happen — when suddenly a yellow box will erupt and demand “Accept!” What can we build from a landslide or toxic accumulation, like a dump? We should advocate architecture that evolves from within the new ecology we have created and work together as revisions are tested. While the idea to build healthy living spaces for shifting, wounded and evolving populations is awesome, more elite architectures of confinement and restriction are built. 2. T E C H N O L O G I C A L S E D U C T I O N C O M E S W I T H C U R V E S 7. T H E A L L U R E O F O R A L C O M M A N D S Mobile devices, phones especially, have soft rounded corners. Although the device itself can’t really injure us, its microwaves probably can. But then again, waves are also curvy, and when we imagine their movements they are mesmerizing and seductive — not scary at all. This giant MRI machine, this gas mask can’t hurt us — they are all curved. Our ears perk up at the multiple sounds we hear on a daily basis — everywhere. We are attentive to noise in the room, the airport, the drug store, the subway, public space, traffic control, its cadences and its cessation. Mostly these are oral commands of a constant volume, timing and reverberation. Even the smile is a command: echoing the words of Stephen Stills on “Wooden Ships”: “If you smile at me, I will understand / Cause that is something everybody everywhere does / In the same language.” 3. P O P U L A R H I G H - T E C H A D H E S I O N S T O X I C R E P E A T E D We are stuck to an adventure of disconnection. We respond, hear things in English, watch screen movements without blinking. We purchase new-tech body insertables, breathables, chemical ingestibles, pills and psychological- help recordings. Our ears hurt from the electromagnetic radiation spilling from our mobile phones, but we can’t pull the darn things off our faces. 8. C C T V T R A F F I C K E R S N E W W I L D W E S T 4. W O M E N 9. S E C U R I T Y P L E A S U R E S “ H A U T E F U T U R E ” A N D S C R U T I N Y Let’s raise the spectre of woman as scrutinizer — as “watcher” in everyday life! From ancestral mothers protecting children at the mouths of caves, the various acts of watching, to scrutinize, are consequential. Women examine, explore, engage, contact. We have learned, in countless films, from the woman’s view — as directors put us inside female characters’ eyes. 5. C H A S E S C E N E S E N T E R T A I N M E N T A S Many of the first films were composed of silent chase scenes and domestic disturbances, where furniture and property were busted up. We can enjoy siding with characters fleeing or making escapes. With its many variations, a chase can be endless or incorporate an end with 185 Journal M A K E A CCTV footage is not only a testing ground that is constantly growing protective and coercive networks, but an erupting market, where pieces of surveillance material are trafficked and CCTV equipment is dragged off into all four corners of the earth and sky. A N D There is a newly discovered pleasure in the identification process built into our devices. Gestures, fingerprints and facial lines allow us to connect to wearables and plug in. It’s sharable information that functions as protection and safeguard. 10. S U R V E I L L A N C E A N D “ M E T A V E I L L A N C E ” There are many types of “veillance”. Sur- and sousveillance, for example, or dataveillance, where the watchers are being watched and cameras are watched by other cameras. The nature of new expectations and doubts about the world beyond surveillance is yet unseen. On earth at least, there is a broader world of seeing sight itself. 10 Ideas 53

JULIA SCHER Julia Scher, Wonderland, 2018 | Page 53