I like to watch. Most
people do. So do most commercial websites. neighborhood WATCH
explores aspects of our culture of manic watching - some of its
pleasures and consquences.
neighborhood WATCH is inspired by the Fluxus Spatial Poems
by Mieko (Chieko) Shiomi and my own obsession with watching the
tracking and data collection mechanisms of the World Wide Web.
In the spirit of Fluxus, it uses readymade imagery from live cameras
broadcasting globally over the internet (i.e. webcams). During
the exhibition TRANSMIT: Fluxus, Mail Art, Net.Works the views
included one of the gallery exhibition. neighborhood WATCH
also uses chance selection mechanisms to reveal three of these
views at a time and fragments of vicarious data collected from
web collaborators.
Please submit your thoughts.
--- Christa Erickson, January 1999