Project Description

//core concept / what it is

Automata is the working title for a counter-surveillance internet bot created to record and display the mutually-beneficial interrelationships between institutions for higher learning, the global defense industry, and world militaries. The proliferation of automated spying techniques on the part of government and corporate institutions has created an unequal flow of information. This bot acts to subvert these techniques in the most relevant way—by making data about the confluence of economic and violent power visible to the public at large for research, activism, and examination.

Automata is not simply about collection and visualization, but a way to enable an understanding of concentrations and relationships of power for the public as well as researchers, through a website, searchable database, and images depicting those relationships.

Recent cuts proposed to portions of the defense budget show how enterprising defense contractors strategically placed the manufacture of defense items in every state to ensure it is embedded in our cultural fabric. Automata intends to investigate the strength of the relationships between our material culture and invisible violent outcomes by making these ties public.

//process / how

Automata begins with a topical web crawler. This means that it will scan text from public websites of organizations in order to find connections between the institutions based on links and key words and phrases. To realize this project, I am planning to use the standard LAMP model (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), which I have used in my web-based artworks, freelance web development, and university web curriculum. Initial research also points to the potential string parsing strengths of PERL, as well as a web crawling framework written in Python.

In Camp La Jolla Military Park, I created an online application to assist in the recording of information about the location and shape of relationships between the University of California, San Diego and local defense contractors. With Automata, I will construct a program to automate this process and expand it across a global network.

//project feasibility

The feasibility of this project can be evaluated by looking at projects I have completed using similar technology (below). Additionally, the scope can be realized by considering that a model for this idea exists in the current practice of search engine indexing, as well as software developments by commercial and government contractors intent on spying on consumers and citizens.^1-4 My project simply subverts and manipulates existing uses of these software.

Information about where we travel, who we contact, and what we buy is already being recorded and used to influence behavior. The level of sophistication which search engine and spam bots traverse and picture the internet grows daily. The corporations that have developed these robots enables anyone to use this model for empowerment.

I also intend to consult members of the computer science department at the university at which I teach in order to optimize methods of scaling and retrieval.

Citations

1. Google search for "defense news"
2. DOE Starlight Information Visualization System (Starlight)
3. Futurepoint Systems, "Government and commercial applications of Starlight"
4. Wikipedia: Deep Packet Inspection
5. Wikipedia: Stellar Wind (code name)
6. U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses, NY Times, April 28, 2009
7. Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for the United States, NY Times, May 31, 2009
8. Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology, Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2009
9. Report on the Investigative Data Warehouse, Electronic Frontier Foundation, April 2009
10. U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets, October 2009

Production Timeline

I. Planning

Research retrieval and storage mechanisms, outline project.

II. Bot programming and testing

Construct and train the bot with websites of known weapons manufacturers. Store text and urls in order to construct initial relationships based on links between .com, .mil, and .edu websites. Use urls to create rough network maps.

III. Begin imaging and revise bot

Make adjustments to the bot as necessary. Automate the process to allow for an immense amount of scalability. Seed the bot with words found in marketing lingo for the defense industry. Visualize deeper relationships based on seeded key words and phrases. Run bot independently for a 6-month period. Construct custom software with Processing to begin visualizing the data.

IV. Compile information into usable outcomes

The ultimate goal is to enact a counter-surveillance measure in order to provide this information as a pubic resource. At this point I will fold in other sorts of information, using the new opensecrets.org API, public information about funding amounts and projects, as well as other means. Additionally, construct a website to contain information, ensuring it is searchable, usable, and clear. Other possible public variations include a Google Earth Layer, and live RSS, KML/XML, and CSV files linking to the data.

V. Disseminate information

Exhibit images, video, and text from the project. Contact press agencies.

About the Artist

Owen Mundy’s artwork considers the places where money and culture collide. Manifesting in both private and public spaces, it initiates dialogue by engaging with history, vernacular forms of communication, and the political order. Influenced by a background in photography, the development of his sculptural and digital practice continues an interest in the cultural construction of meaning through mechanical means of representation.