Author: Caleb Schlabach
Edward Snowden and NSA Spying
June 2013. 200,000 classified documents were leaked to the press. The person responsible, Edward Snowden. Snowden was a National Security Agency contractor and computer specialist, former Central Intelligence Agency employee and a whistleblower.
Called a hero, a dissident and even a traitor, Snowden says that his “sole motive” was “to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.” Snowden also shared “I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. Harming people isn’t my goal. Transparency is.” Considered a fugitive by American authorities and charged with espionage and theft of government property he is currently living in Russia.
The NSA has been gathering enormous amounts of data from the average law abiding American to foreign allies. With what seems like very little regulations and restrictions being put on the NSA it is easy to see this become even more intense in the years to come if nothing is done. I am not saying the NSA needs to stop spying, not at all, but reforms need to take place and checks and balances should be put in place. Me as an average citizen doesn’t need to know everything the NSA is doing. However, it would be nice to make a phone call and not wonder who else is listening in.
Chris Soghoian explains just how much power the NSA has “The NSA sorta performs two kinds of surveillance. They perform dragnet surveillance of everyones communications and then they perform targeted surveillance on individual communications and if the NSA wants to get into your computer or phone they’re gonna get in and there really isn’t any way to stop them.”
Why does this matter? Maybe you share the same idea as many and say “I have nothing to hide, I don’t really care.” What you may not know is that the NSA is allowed to target surveillance somebody who is “three hops” away from their intended suspect. That means somebody who talks to somebody who talks to you. The amount of people three hops away from you is enormous. The website theguardian.com has a calculator up to determine just how many people are three hops away from you based off your number of Facebook friends. I have 390 friends on Facebook, that means that I have 63,726 people that are connected to me in just “two hops” on Facebook. That in itself is already a huge number but if we go one more level I have 10,412,828 3rd degree friends. Basically what that means is if anyone of those nearly 10 and a half million people are being targeted in any reason by the NSA then the NSA can target surveillance me by hacking into my phone or computer.
What is interesting is that this topic is unlike most in Washington. Like Glenn Greenwald, a former journalist for The Guardian said, “There are very few issues of political significance in American politics that don’t follow the sorta predicable partisan script where Republicans are on one side and Democrats are on the other. And here what you have is the exact opposite. You have the most liberal Democrats in Washington and the most conservative Republicans and everybody in-between joining together and almost defunding a major NSA program.”
Ongoing spying by the NSA could potentially effect everything we do in our day to day lives. Creative culture online is based off of freedom of speech and creating whatever you want to create. However what if people start getting put in jail for a meme because it somehow by chance connected them with a terrorist organization.
Andy Carvin’s job is online and deals a lot with keeping some of contacts names private. If those names were somehow to escape lives could be lost and wars could potentially start. What Snowden wanted to do and did, was to start a debate about spying and how far it needs to go. Ai Weiwei is another figure online a lot. Ai is in fact a lot like Snowden. In a new exhibit that Ai Weiwei has created he shows just what it was like in the room he was kept during his 81 day secret detention. Ai Weiwei is not afraid to release things about the Chinese government to provoke discussion and encourage a change in the system.
Anonymous being based mainly online and understanding a lot about encryption and computer science in general potentially makes spying on their group for the NSA a little more difficult. With that said there is still a very high chance that they are being spied on in some form like the rest of us even if they don’t have anything to hide.
My blog that I have worked on all semester has been about different techniques ranging from camera and still images to video and a little editing. Stuff that seems irrelevant and silly for the NSA to look at or monitor for suspicious behavior or gaining any knowledge on anything unrelated to taking a picture or color correcting a piece of video footage. However with hundreds of thousands of terabytes of data being collected by the NSA every week, information like that on my blog, seems like it would be the bulk of the information gathered by the NSA.
Anonymous
Anonymous (anon-y-mous)
: not named or identified
: made or done by someone unknown
: not distinct or noticeable
: international, leaderless, network of hacktivists and anarchist entities.
(Definitions provided by Merriam-Webster Online and Wikipedia)
Anonymous started from a website called 4chan, a website that puts anonymous next to every upload so nobody knows who actually uploaded the content. Mostly hackers this group really got off the ground when they had a run in with the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology was forcing websites to take off a video while Anonymous was protesting that saying that the internet is free and nobody can control what is and is not online.
Anonymous started really coming together and collaborating with each other and organized a protest around the world in front of Church of Scientology buildings around the world. There goal was over 9,000 people to show up all around the world and #over9000 was a popular hashtag at the time. On February 10, 2008 they reached that goal with an estimated 9,250 people around the world protesting the Church of Scientology (Wikinews).
Anonymous is also well known for DDoS (distributed denial-of-service), trolling, and their videos with a voice synthesizer over the persons voice to make the video “Anonymous”.
DDoS is when an individual sets up a program to attack a server of a website like Amazon or PayPal. In simple terms it is like going to the website and hitting the refresh button over and over again. DDoS-ing is illegal and is one of the things that gets Anons in trouble with the law.
Trolling is when someone online starts arguments, disrupts the normal on-topic discussion going on or gains an emotional response from someone. This can be done by posting off topic, inflammatory or extraneous messages in on an online chat room, forum or blog. Media in the recent years has equated trolling with online harassment and describes a troll as “a person who defaces Internet tribute sites with the aim of causing grief to families.” Wikipedia
Anonymous uses their voice synthesizer in their videos so the actual person making the video can stay anonymous. The voice also has no gender attached to it and sounds more like a computer speaking then anything else. This works well for Anonymous because a lot of what they do is based online and the majority of them have incredibly in-depth skills with computers and hacking. The voice is like a symbol for them just like the Guy Fawkes mask or their logo.
Quinn Norton is a blogger who follows and reports on Anonymous and has a really good understanding of who they are, what they do and how someone joins as she says here;
There’s a shared set of values and anesthetics, more than anything else. I mean, I like to call Anonymous a culture. It’s pretty easy to say that Anons are pro free speech. It’s pretty easy to say that they’re anti-censorship. And it’s easy to say that they are bound together by a certain sense of humor in most of what they do. From there on, you get amazing diversity in philosophy, in execution, in the desire for execution, and in the particular goals that a set of Anons will choose to go after.
Anyone can be Anonymous. All you have to do is decide you’re Anonymous. So if you are anyone, anywhere, in any strata of society, and you decide that you are Anonymous, that’s it. You’ve joined. What you do from there is your decision.
Anonymous is mainly online, and are a big contributor in creative culture online. With websites like 4chan or B, Anonymous shares and creates videos, pictures, memes and other pieces then shares them online. Being big supporters of a free internet and anti-censorship they create and share things from all different genres: cute, funny, inappropriate, curent events and so on.
Anonymous, like Andy Carvin uses the internet to organize gatherings and do the majority of their public speaking. By using Twitter and other chatrooms Anons communicate with each other and the world about any topic they choose or organize a protest. Twitter is a key in many operations like Anonymous, Andy Carvin and also Ai Weiwei, as I mentioned in my last blog post, Ai Weiwei uses Twitter to help document his day to day life, post pictures and meet people in person by just sharing his dinner plans for that night.
Like Quinn Norton said in her quote, “…they’re (Anonymous) anti-censorship…”, and that what Edward Snowden believed too when he released the NSA Government Spying documents. Instead of on a computer, Snowden was physically able to gather the documents in the NSA building and leak them.
Anonymous is a community online, similarly there are communities online that focus on just about anything. Take my blog for example, sharing information and techniques primarily to do with photography and video. This becomes apart of the online photography and video community of people who talk via twitter, forums and chatrooms just like the Anons do.
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei (@aiww) is a Chinese artist and activist. Through his art and everyday life Ai is fighting for change and transparency. He is open and honest with the people who follow him and the media. Through his own transparency, peaceful protests, and artwork; along with the way he deals with problems that come his way (government or personal) Ai Weiwei always seems to play his cards right and be a good example to the rest of us. By the way he protests and how he lives his life Ai Weiwei is an extremely humble individual in the position to create change.
Ai’s project ‘Straight’ where he straitened 150 tons of steal rebar from the Sichuan earthquake was a piece that brought light to the poor construction of the government buildings and schools that were destroyed in the quake. This piece is just one one example of the artwork Ai Weiwei creates. By making artwork like this Ai follows his pattern of protesting without breaking any laws.
One of the best values I think Ai Weiwei has is his transparency and humility. When he had an affair he acknowledged it, didn’t try to hide it and every day he spends time with his son that resulted. It goes against everything we know or think when looking at an individual in such a powerful position like Ai’s. Ai Weiwei has over 10,000 followers on twitter, is followed by press and citizens alike and has made national news as well as being a big thorn in the Chinese government. Yet despite all the fame and trust he has gained from people all over the world it does not get to his head.
Ai is constantly reaching out to his followers on Twitter, letting them know what he is doing: spending time with his family, going to dinner, or working on his latest art piece. This connection he has shows how much he cares for the common people. And by no means does he take advantage of the position he is in. With all the powerful and corrupt in the world it is extremely refreshing to have someone like Ai around to be a wonderful example to others.
Ai Weiwei once said, “I call on people to be ‘obsessed citizens,’ forever questioning and asking for accountability. That’s the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.” I love this quote because it is a call to action from others. To question the “normal” and powerful. This quote also describes how Ai lives his own life. He questions the authorities and pushes for reform, and he also understands that he needs to be accountable too. He practices what he preaches. The example I provided above is a perfect example, he made a mistake and hurt his wife but owned up to it.
Frontline’s Alison Klayman, a freelance journalist and film maker has been following Ai Weiwei for the last couple years. She describes Ai Weiwei as a provocative artist, and provocative not only with his art but also with his online activity on Twitter and his blog. While always being obsessed with documenting his day to day life. Ai called the 2008 Olympics as “A fake smile China was putting on for the rest of the world.”
“Typical Chinese critics are mild in their words. They will never directly speak out against the Communist Party or the government. They would never directly curse this society. But Ai Weiwei is different. He will scold them. He uses the most aggressive words to point out society’s dark side.” Chen Danqing, Beijing Artist.
Ai Weiwei is using the current events in China almost like people online use Creative Culture. Ai finds things that are relevant, rebar from destroyed buildings and creates an art project from them. Similar to how online people find pictures or create memes with what has happened recently. It is almost like Ai is making giant non-digital memes with his art.
Andy Carvin and Ai Weiwei both have a big presence online, Twitter especially. The power they each have is substantial and yet neither of them take advantage of the position that they are in but use it to benefit those they touch. While Andy is usually just online coordinating different things online and using his connections, Weiwei is both online and offline with the work that he does.
Anonymous with their viral messages online getting word all around the world for a protest or march is exactly how Ai Weiwei gets word out to his followers. By networks on Twitter and blogs and chatrooms both Ai Weiwei and Anonymous reach people and followers on every continent at the exact same time. Taking advantage of what the internet can do for us today.
I think if Ai Weiwei could shake Edward Snowden’s hand and congratulate him for his whistle blowing he would, and maybe he has. Had Ai Weiwei been in the position Snowden was he would have done the same thing. Ai is a big supporter of transparency, this is not just from citizen to citizen but also government to government and government to citizen. What Snowden did was show unveil just how far the NSA spying reaches in an attempt to make them more accountable for their actions. Not un-similar to what Ai Weiwei is trying to do with the Chinese government.
My blog shares different skills and techniques or processes with photography or video. This is stuff that Ai Weiwei uses himself every day. The more advanced stuff is done by professionals but he understands just how powerful and wide spread multi media is especially online and how he can use it to his advantage.
Andy Carvin and Arab Spring
These days Twitter is one of the best places to get realtime news as well as communicate to broad numbers of people in an instant. For Andy Carvin (@acarvin) Twitter has been a huge part of his life the last couple years.
“…I spent anywhere from eighteen to twenty hours a day on twitter.” -Andy Carvin
Columbia Journalism Review once asked, “Is [Carvin’s] the world’s most important Twitter account?”
I believe that is a great question to ask, with seeing just how much Andy tweets and the relevance and importance of his tweets to people around the world especially in the war zones that he is tweeting about. A term that I have heard come up around Andy and the work he has done with Twitter is “Citizen Journalism.”
Bowman, S. and Willis, C. “We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information.” 2003, The Media Center at the American Press Institute. call citizen journalism “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information.”
This is exactly what Andy Carvin coordinates through his Twitter. By asking questions about what is happening in an area and getting responses that he can sift through, verify and then report or retweet them out again he is finding out what is going on in real time and reporting that through his large network.
Andy is a part of a network of people online who through Twitter commentated and reported the events surrounding Arab Spring. Just by chance people started following Andy and not just people in the United States but activists in Egypt and surrounding countries have also followed Carvin, creating a network that he could use to find out information and then share it back to everyone of his followers regarding Arab Spring or other events that have developed around the world since then.
Andy, like the other topics I am covering, uses the internet and social media as a big part of his day to day life and communication. Communication is a big part of Carvin’s job. Like creative culture online, Andy shares and learns from a community online. Slightly different is his content compared to creative culture but the idea is the same. He gathers different information from a variety of sources and then creates his own tweets about the topic or shares and retweets. Like someone might gather information online including pictures and stories then use them to create a meme like I did in my last blog post.
Ai Weiwei and Andy Carvin share similarities as well, Twitter is a big part of Ai Weiwei’s work like it is with Carvin. Ai Weiwei uses Twitter in similar ways like Andy, to live tweet at events he is throwing or what he is planning. What both of these men do with Twitter is essentially share activist movements and ongoings with their followers to spread the word, gain support, and to engage in online culture and conversations with their followers who tweet at them. By doing this they can share up to the minute updates and build positive support for everything else they do outside of just Twitter.
Anonymous, like Andy Carvin, does a lot of what they do online. By communicating online they organize events and rallies, similar to how Andy posts online. The group Anonymous has a strong base online and are often referred to as “hackers” and usually know their way around the internet and a computer in general. Using that knowledge to help in some cases activists around the world. By sharing relevant articles or setting up internet connections in places where the government shut it down.
Edward Snowden and the NSA spying connects with Andy by how information is shared. Information for the public is almost always online first. Whether the platform is Twitter or another website like theguardian.com. In both instances the most important agenda is reporting the truth and making sure what is posted is fact before it is released. Another connection is that Andy tweets about the Edward Snowden files like in this resent tweet:
Via @nprnews: Guardian Editor: We’ve Published 1 Percent Of Snowden Files http://t.co/s9xkMvPYme
— Andy Carvin (@acarvin) December 4, 2013
My blog ties into Andy’s work by how we approach a post. While there is way more pressure on Andy for making sure what he tweets and re-tweets is for sure accurate, when I create a blog I do not want to be posting false information just to post information. I think this translates well into the offline world too. It is a really good habit to not spread rumors or lies even if you had not intended or known that they were false when you spoke them.
Andy has described his Twitter feed as a “Realtime news gathering operation.” “I feel like I’m anchoring coverage, as a host would on television or on the radio
Creative Culture Online
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The idea of Creative Culture online is simple, other people from around the world share their creative work online and anybody can use that work as a part of their own projects creating something similar or completely different. Then, that individual shares what they have created online for the rest of the world to see, share and use as a part of their own work as well. Creative Culture Online is one of the closest examples of a global collaboration of artists, who all share together to create anything imaginable with endless resources.
Creative culture is powerful and once something goes viral there is no telling how many people will see it and what all will happen. If an image goes viral, like “Strutting Leo” then people all over the world will make their own meme with the image and soon there will be countless different memes all with the same punch line or charter, or quote in it.
I created my own Strutting Leo meme by simply googling different images and then combining them in photoshop to make the meme. After I was finished I uploaded the meme to Reddit to share with the online community.
Creative Culture online has many ties to everything around us and the other topics we discussed this semester in class. Andy Carvin (@acarvin) used online culture to learn and spread news about Arab Spring. By doing so with the use of twitter Andy led help lead NPR into the new online, social media age as well as getting the word out around the world about the events leading up to and happening around Arab Spring.
Ai Wei Wei (@aiww) still creates his art in the physical world but he is no stranger to the power of the internet. Ai communicates through Twitter regularly and knows that the online community can spread anything like wildfire. Anonymous is based off the idea of creative culture online. With the use of 4chan Anonymous started from people being creative and sharing what they had made online, out of all the people and groups I am talking about Anonymous is the closest connected and interacts the most with Creative Culture online.
Edward Snowden and the NSA Government spying is still effected by creative culture online even if it doesn’t seem obvious at first. Websites like the guardian.com inform the public about what is going on and the files that Edward Snowden released. The website uses interactive and relatable visuals to explain just how large and wide spread the the NSA spying is.
Creative culture online connects with my blog by the sharing of ideas. On my blog I share different techniques on how to do different projects or set ups for photography or video and share ideas like my tutorial on photo planets or color correction. If you are involved online in anyway there is a really good chance you are participating in online creative culture somehow. Even by having a Facebook page and posting a picture of your morning coffee or the sunrise.
Creative online culture is a reflection of a person, like the people from Memefactory said,
“Every single piece of content that a user on the internet makes amounts to a certain amount of self expression.”
And with the new age with the internet and the new younger generations growing up online Creative Culture online is only going to grow and get bigger.
Getting Inspired
A common problem for many artistic and creative people is finding inspiration for a project or piece. It can be unnerving just staring at a blank canvas and feeling as if it is mocking you just sitting there. Now there are many ways to get inspired and to follow are a few of those ways that I have tried myself.
A technique that I use often and that works very well is to write down short ideas and anything that comes to mind for a set amount of time, say 3-5 minutes. These can be one word to a sentence long but usually kept relatively short and to the point. Don’t censor this at all! Once finished with that I go through all that I have written down and highlight a couple that I really like. Now looking at those highlighted I do the whole process again with those first ideas as a guide. The process can be repeated over and over again however many times you would like or need till you get your inspiration.
Another step I often take when using this method is to create a couple different variations of my first idea. These can be just simple sketches or ideas but basically it is a step to help decide the specific details of the project and I find really helpful.
Another good way to find inspiration is to look up examples of what people have already done. Good websites for this would be YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, or just plain Google, all depending on what your project is.
Kickstarter
Recently I talked with Jerry Holsopple, one of my professors here at EMU, and asked a few questions about Kickstarter; an online platform used by people looking to fund a project of theirs.
Caleb: In a nutshell, what is Kickstarter?
Jerry: Kickstarter is a way to get lots of people to support a project you cannot do on your own. People buy into your idea so then when your product comes out there is already lots of people interested.
Caleb: How does this system work?
Jerry: It starts with an idea, like mine to create a photo book about the Baltic Way. Publishing a photo book the traditional way would almost be impossible or would take a lot of money for the publisher. With Kickstarter I can self publish and those that support will receive something like a digital version of the book, a catalog, even a full sized book and a handmade Fresco depending on how much money that supporter gave. It is common for the supporters to receive something for their contribution.
Caleb: Have you ever used Kickstarter before?
Jerry: I haven’t, I have supported at least 10-12 projects maybe more than that.
Caleb: Do you like Kickstarter and do you see more of this type of funding happening in the future?
Jerry: Yeah, I think it means that especially artistic projects have a better chance of getting support on Kickstarter than with art galleries and other traditional ways. They (Galleries) often are only looking for the big names or projects that will bring in a lot of money. Numbers are good on Kickstarter that if you get over 50% funded then there is a good chance you will reach your goal and get full support.
Caleb: Any final comments?
Jerry: If each of my former students were to support this project I would be fully funded. Also it will be interesting to see how international support might happen. Never doing it before I don’t know what will happen and thats the mystery, excitement and challenge.
As he mentioned Jerry is creating a Kickstarter project for his Baltic Way project. Last summer he went to the Baltics and drove the 600 kilometer path connecting the capital cities Tallinn (Estonia), Riga (Latvia), and Vilnius (Lithuania) (MAP) where in 1939 over 2 million people (over 25% of the total population) held hands peacefully protesting the Soviet occupation. While over there he interviewed many people who were there and is putting together a gallery show for the 25th anniversary next year. With his gallery he is also wanting to put together a book where he will be able to include even more from his journey over there.
I am in a group that is creating the video for his Kickstarter project and once it goes live you will be able to see it and support it by clicking HERE.
Creation Panoramic Photo Planets
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A relatively new photography method is taking a panorama picture and then turning it into it’s owl little globe, also known mainly by the term Photo Planets.
 Planet of a church and houses by Jan Vrsinsky |
Above is an example of a photo globe from Jan Vrsinsky.
In the video below I take you through the steps to creating your own.
The Importance of Audio
Have you ever been in an awkward moment. Maybe the end of a conversation or just a time in a social situation where you were uncomfortable. I’m willing to bet you have been and that during that time it was completely silent. Or an “awkward silence”.
The same rules can apply to a movie. A movie with no audio or poor audio can sound awkward and is an easy way to make a well shot and edited piece a bad movie. The best audio in a film is when the viewer doesn’t even notice it. It sounds natural and brings the whole piece together.
To get the best audio an off camera mic is the best way to go. A shotgun microphone is one of the most convenient and versatile. Able to single out whatever it is pointed at a shotgun mike is really easy to keep out of the video shot while still getting excellent audio. Another mic that works really well for interviewing is a lapel microphone. A lapel is usually clipped onto the person’s shirt who is being interviewed. A lapel is easy to hide on a person’s body and also isolates the person who is talking.
Just as important as your dialogue audio is atmospheric audio, the background noises. A good rule of thumb is to always record a minute of blank atmospheric audio before you start recording anyone speaking. Make sure to use the same mic as what you are recording dialogue with and also ensure that nobody is making any excess noise. This atmospheric audio will be used in times where you have a jump cut and the atmospheric audio in the dialogue track is lower than the next clip. Your raw atmosphere sound will help to even this out.
Sound design is key to a good film. And can even change an average film to much better film with a good audio score. In the link to the video below the audio design team from the movie Inception talks about the Inception soundtrack and what a went into making it.
SoundWorks Collection: The Sound of Inception
The Online Art Era 