SCP work with some really interesting ideas and concepts—the entitlement to one’s own image in public space, the passerby as instant celebrity (by fact of their numerous televised appearances throughout the day), control of space, etc. However, sometimes the execution is a little trite (overuse of the Big Brother/1984 images and ideas), and the actual political application is limited. Not as disruptive as many other such actions (street theatre, RTS actions, etc.) but still a valid act. The idea of restaging Alfred Jarry plays in New York subway stations is quite inspired.
Web homepage :http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html
Email : notbored@panix.com
Snail mail : SCP c/o NOT BORED! POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York City 10009-9998 Spokespersons : Bill Brown
Some type of similarly themed group exists in most major cities. The New York Surveillance Camera Players are probably the best known of any group of this type. The Surveillance Camera Player’s website provides links to the following chapters: Arizona, Bologna, Lithuania, San Francisco, and Stockholm.
Surveillance society, which is an imminent reality, must be critiqued and attacked concurrently. Guerilla programming is direct: it is a simultaneous exposure of the oppressive system and subversion of that system to inform the oppressors (and anyone else who may be watching us) of their own ridiculousness and complicity.
As theory and practice must occur simultaneously, so must critique and subversion. Guerilla programming is go! (" Guerilla Programming of Video Surveillance Equipment " from Surveillance Camera Players website)
Resistance to societies of control/surveillance society. Challenges the issue of ownership to one’s own image.
Various Situationist and Psychogeographic theorists (Guy Debord, Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau). Antonin Artaud and his concept of theater of cruelty has had an important influence on SCP. Also, SCP have presented versions of Wilhelm Reich’s “The Mass Psychology of Fascism” in their performances.
Surveillance society.
Advocates non-violent, non-branded tactics that disrupt cultural, and daily, life. The basic concept of guerilla programming is simple: a group of individuals create a scenario and act it out using surveillance cameras as if they were their own, as if they were producing their own program, and as if the audience consisted of security personnel, police, school principals, residents of upper-class high security neighborhoods, and the producers and salespeople of the security systems themselves.
The guerilla programming group can pick any camera they find convenient and enticing, keeping in mind of course that some cameras are monitored live, while others record to tape that will probably be viewed only in the event of some crime taking place during the hours of its operation. For this reason, guerilla actions at 24-hour bank machines aren't too productive. The group can choose to emulate the traditional structures of theatre, cinema, the TV sitcom or documentary, or just wing it and go free-style.
A group could choose a regular time slot, say Thursday nights at 8:30, to air their program or instead choose to put on a big 5 hour gala production. As critics of the spectacle, guerilla programming actions should always be, in each group's own way, an investigation and an expose.
For example, a group of surveillance guerillas, meeting weekly to produce an action, can choose to investigate the structure of narrative fiction or ideologically infused documentaries to critically study the structure of these forms, and the influence they have had on the social interactions of the participants, in order to purge themselves of the spectacle's control. (taken from Surveillance Camera Players website )
Numerous and on-going. See scp website for listings and descriptions of various actions.
The folks at SCP have received massive amount of interesting press in the mainstream media, from CNN and MTV (see SCP compilation video) to Adbusters (various issues, most recently #45). See " press coverage-complete listings " for extensive media documentation.