We have video surveillance cameras everywhere I go, whether it is the library, public areas, private premises, the roads or near orbit. No one seems to mind. In fact, most feel it keeps us safe. This is a little bit silly as Canberra must be one of the safest cities in the world.
No, rather than keeping us safe, the cameras unite us under one eye. At the back of our minds we remember that God is always watching us, and indeed Canberra was designed from the God's eye view, so the eye of the camera seems normal and natural and we take them for granted.
But the effective purpose of the cameras is to abolish individual space and create tribal space.
So the cameras are watching out for the sins of individuality, creativity, empathy and privacy, while encouraging the virtue of presence.
Yes, we are all present on the camera.
And just as celebrities are celebrated, not for anything they do, but for their sheer presence, so are we.
Yes, we are not present on camera for anything we do, but for our sheer presence.
And whereas discovery, creativity, individuality, empathy and privacy are clichés of the Literate Age, presence is the cliché of the Electronic Age.
