4.23.2007

Ljubljana: bridging security culture with urban culture and figuring it out.

I'm filled with coffee and ideas. I have to read Wallerstein (and I will) but I got's to do some writing. Being excited and jittery is a natural state for me.


In Vancouver, we have surveillance cameras in the city center. London is saturated with them. In my classrooms here in Ljubljana, cameras are installed on the walls, pointing towards the front of the class.

I was thinking: are there cameras in the city as well? Yes, there are. I'm still looking for websites that feature Ljubljana and security culture. Anyone want to throw me a link? Here's what I have so far:

iSee: A web application from the Institute for Applied Autonomy that tracks camera locations and plots routes so you can avoid unwanted surveillance. Ljubljana apparently has a map. Anyone know where I can find it?

A little piece on art and surveillance from We Make Money Not Art, one of my favourite sites.

Apparently, there have been a couple of projects in Ljubljana based on surveillance and security culture, one in 2003 (scroll down to IAA's workshop that mapped the cameras in Ljubljana) and one in 2006 (courtesy of Kiperpipa), so there is some dialogue on the topic.

Have you all heard about Track-the-Trackers? It's this great project that gives gear to participants to map out surveillance cameras and upload their coordinates to a server. Brilliant.

Sorry, this is just preliminary research on this topic. I thought this post would have more meat on it! Y'all can post thoughts, insights, complaints and critiques as I sort through websites and essays.

7 comments:

Jean said...

What are you reading by Wallerstein? I liked his Utopistics,, and subscribe to his bimonthly commentaries on world events.

Jay said...

I'm reading "Historical Origins of World-Systems Analysis" from Social Science Disciplines to Historical Social Sciences.

This is my first time encountering Wallerstein. For some reason he's not exceedingly popular in my home faculty, although I could be wrong.

When did you first read him? Any thoughts on his work? :)

Lisa said...

You are indeed wrong. He came and gave a talk in the department last year and I seem to recall a fair bit of excitement. Not as much as when Žižek dropped by the campus, but still.

Jean said...

I think I first saw him cited when I was translating a paper for Breda Luthar a few years ago. Piqued my interest so I borrowed a book or two from a friend and was favorably impressed.

A lengthier and more learned critique will have to wait till another time--got to take my daughter to the train station now.

I've quoted him a time or two on my blurg:

http://mojavas.blogspot.com/search?q=wallerstein

Jay said...

Well, I did say I could be wrong. ;)

I have never crossed paths with his work and no sociology prof in any of my classes has even mentioned him.

Lisa said...

We like to hide the good stuff from the undergrads. ;) Nah, just kidding. I never read Wallerstein in a class either, even at the MA level.

Jay said...

Ha!