Reaction to Steve Mann Reading
I found that Steve Mann's article responded to some of the issues raised in Frank Webster's Theories of the Information Society with regard to surveillance as an important information gathering tool of the "scientific management" mindset of our corporate and governmental systems. Mirroring Webster's desire to understand the impact of information technology (primarily in the form of information gathering) on the regulation of current society, Mann wants to question the claim that surveillance will lead to a "better future" (Mann 94).
What I found fascinating about the article was that Mann's experiments in "Reflectionism," relied upon his "clothing" and the identity he created with it. It seems that the experiments he undertook would not have been so directly provocative if he simply visited establishments wearing "normal" clothes and carrying a video camera. By using the personally expressive power of his clothing, he literally wore his attitude "on his sleeve." This was especially subversive in the context of our discussion of wearables because unlike a handheld technical accessory, his imaging and data transmission system was deeply embedded in the garments he was wearing. He mirrors the use of built-in video surveillance as a new "prosthetic territory" of architecture (Mann 95) by his total integration of the equiment into his identity, even going so far as to insist on his "self+prosethetic device" (Mann 101) identity on official documentation.
"'Reflectionism' and 'Diffusionism': New Tactics for Deconstructing the Video Surveillance Superhighway"
Steve Mann
Leonardo, Vol. 31 No. 2. (1998), pp.93-102