”Political-spam” 2008

For three months, Warsaw offices of Polish Deputies were inundated with spam relating to the increasingly vital problem of ‘Surveillance Culture’ - social surveillance carried out by means of technological devices.
In the materials sent to the Deputies, the author emphasised that decisions regarding such important changes, interfering with everyday environment of Polish citizens, should be made in the spirit of democracy, i.e. taking public opinion into account.  

‘I would like to suggest highlighting the issue of the broadly defined monitoring in the media, with the participation of experts and intellectuals, which would initiate social discourse and thus contribute to the creation of a legal framework taking due account of the public’s will.’
           
The 'P-s’ campaign resulted in many letters exchanged and meetings organised with politicians. The effect of the campaign was to sensitise Polish Deputies to the abovementioned issues, as well as to communicate the information that at least part of the society does not want to live under constant surveillance.

The Deputies submitted the materials to the Justice and Human Rights Committee of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland.  They will be taken into consideration in the further works of the Committee.

”Political-spam” 2008

Przez trzy miesiące warszawskie biura poselskie były zasypywane spamem, którego treść dotyczyła narastającej problematyki społecznego nadzoru prowadzonego za pośrednictwem urządzeń technologicznych -„Surveillance Culture”.
W treść wysyłanych materiałów autor podkreślił, że decyzje dotyczące tak istotnych przemian, ingerujących w codzienne środowisko obywateli, powinny być podejmowane w duchu demokratycznym, czyli z uwzględnieniem zdania opinii publicznej.

„Chciałbym zasugerować medialne naświetlenie problematyki szeroko pojętego monitoringu, z udziałem ekspertów i intelektualistów, inicjujące dyskurs społeczny, a w dalszej kolejności stworzenie regulacji prawnych uwzględniających wolę ogółu.”
           
Akcja „P-s” doprowadziła do wymiany licznych korespondencji, oraz spotkań z politykami. Jej efektem było uwrażliwienie posłów na powyższą problematykę, a także przekazanie informacji, że części społeczeństwa nie chce żyć pod ciągłym nadzorem.

Za sprawą Posłów materiały zostały przekazane do Sejmowej Komisji Sprawiedliwości i Praw Człowieka. Maja być uwzględnione w dalszych pracach komisji.

Dear Sir Andrzej Halicki,
I am writing to you due to the fact that I have voted for you and thus I consider you indirectly representing my political and social views. I am an artist working in the public space, focusing on the issue of the social fabric surveillance by means of electronic devices. I am writing to ask for your help, since as a Deputy of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland you have the potential to put certain important ideas into effect.

Considering the fact that we share the same space, I would like to draw your attention to the phenomenon which has aggressively penetrated our common environment in the recent years. The privacy of individuals is being regularly violated without their approval, or even knowledge. The omnipresence of CCTV cameras is a commonly known fact. Public space is literally penetrated by industrial monitoring technologies. CCTV cameras are tracing our every step as we move through different city areas every day. Every day, without thinking, we pass those devices and simply forget about it. However, in-depth analysis of this phenomenon is extremely important, since the issue has various consequences.
To date, no legal acts have been adopted that would regulate the circumstances in which our actions could be registered without our consent, or which would govern the destination of the material on which we have been recorded.  The phenomenon I am writing about is much broader and also concerns website monitoring.

We cannot ignore the fact that our privacy is becoming the most heavily repressed area of our lives. Despite the fact that the majority of us seems not to notice this problem, many artists all around the world, watching those alarming transformations, do whatever they can to implement the awareness of such dangerous changes inside the social fabric. This results from the fact that the deformation I am writing about implies the potential for change which could push the territory of our mutual relations towards the ‘surveillance society’ model.

I firmly believe that decisions regarding such important changes, interfering with our everyday environment, should be made in the spirit of democracy, i.e. taking public opinion into account.  I would like to suggest highlighting the issue of the broadly defined monitoring in the media, with the participation of experts and intellectuals, which would initiate social discourse and thus contribute to the creation of a legal framework taking due account of the public’s will.
Yours sincerely,
Roch Forowicz

Dear Sir,
On behalf of Mr./Mrs. Ryszard Kalisz I thank you for your letter and for the opinions and remarks expressed therein. I ensure you that this response results from the fact that the Deputy has read your letter.  Naturally, the issue described is interesting; however, it seems even more complicated if we consider its legal complexity, because it pertains to the extent of permissible interference of public authorities in the private lives of citizens.
Although this issue seems clear in the context of the procedural criminal law, in the administrative area, in particular with regard to state authorities' responsibility for guaranteeing public order and security and to the identification of effective measures which would at the same time ensure an adequate level of respect for fundamental civic rights and freedoms, it remains an open and much more complicated problem…

I could illustrate this statement with the example of the United States of America, a country, and citizens, whose particular predilection for privacy cannot be denied. After the 9/11 attacks, there was a noticeable social consent for the creation of systems which monitored also private lives of citizens, or aspects closely related to privacy...

To sum up, the issue is not simple and indeed it is worth further consideration. Your remarks have been forwarded to the Justice and Human Rights Committee of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, to be used in further works of the Committee.

Thank you once again.
Your sincerely,
Włodzimierz Piątkowski
Office of Ryszard Kalisz, Deputy of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland

Biography
         Roch Forowicz was born in 1978 in Warsaw.
         In 2005, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
         the Multimedia workroom, and got the master  degree.
         In 2007 he started working as  an assistant professor of Multimedia 
         workroom at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.  
         In 2007 he set up Upgrade!Warsaw.

Selected exhibitions:
         2004 e w n s Visual Arts Festival, "Invigilate  - video".  
         2005 Rhizome, "Invigilate".
         2005 Turbulence, "Invigilate".
         2006 FILE Rio Symposium,  "Invigilate".
         2006 Turbulence, "Environment".
         2006 FILE Sao Paulo,  "Environment".
         2006 Turbulence, "Looking out of the  window".
         2007 Centre for Contemporary Art – Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw,
           CONCRETE LEGACY FROM CORBUSIER TO BLOKERS, "Invigilate",
         "Looking out of the window", (exhibition curated by Ewa Gorządek, Stach Szabłowski).
         2007 Turbulence, "Interception".
         2007 Rhizome, "Interception".
         2007 neural.it, "Interception".
         2008 Studio Gallery, "Interception" (exhibition curated by Krzysztof Żwirblis).
         2008 Entropia Gallery, Athletic cinema 02, "Interception" (curated by Krzysztof Gufrański).
         2008 HAIP Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia, “Interception”, “InterceptionExtended”.
         2008 CologneOFF, “Interception”.
         2008 Komuna Otwock, “Interception”,“Interception 2 ”, “InterceptionExtended”.
         2008 WEF- Warsaw Electronic Festival, "Interception","Interception","InterceptionExtended"
         2009 International Guerrilla Video Festival, Dublin, "Interception 2".
         2009 Liwoli09 - hacklab for art and open source, Linz, "InterceptionLinz".
         2009 Paraflows - URBAN HACKING, Vienna, "InterceptionLinz".
         2009 WEFcon- Warsaw Electronic Festival, Zacheta, "Interception".