IM WAT_CHING UU

 
Cameras, cameras everywhere, watching over me all the time.
I swipe my ID to get into school buildings. I use one of the computers in the lab, and my traces are left behind. All of the online activies I do are easily accessible. I erase cookies or temporary Internet files yet I can't completey erase everything. Credit card I use, emails I write, things I shop online.. everything.
Even Facebook is about surveilling your friends' activites. Facebook stalking, I say, is happening actually.
 
Just using my debit or credit card can tell a lot of things. Supplies I get, and food store i frequently use can describe a lot from me. It can tell anything, anything. It can lead to cyber crime. It's that easy.
 
There is no privacy. After since everything turned into digital, people leave some kind of trace here and there.
And there are companies that deal with those data for good purpose and other companies that abuse, in contrary. The term "Identity theft" is no longer sci-fi to contemporary culture. But humanity can't go back without technology yet they are watched, controlled, hypnotized as a result.
 
Is there  a way to prevent ourselves from being surveilled? Maybe when i move to Alaska, wait no.
I'll still use my credit card. Hmm. I guess not.
There is no way.
 
 
YOU ARE ALWAYS WATACHED OVER. WHO WATCHES OVER THE WATCHMEN.

REmiX the future - -

When my friend recommend Girl Talk's music last year in high school, I was his fan immediately. Pop, hip hop, rock and everything was all mashed up together in one song. From Pink to Radiohead, Girl Talk was crossing over genres and creating that was never invented before. 
 
But there were issues of
COPYWRITE
OWNERSHIP
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
of Girl Talk's music. Since the songs used for the samplings were created by other famous musians, he supposely has to ask permission and pay decent amount of money to justify his action. But he doesn't. He is still creating music without paying copywrited materials.



 
Of course, creation of music and movies should be protected. Artist's creativity, time, effort and money are valuable and therefore be rewarded back to the creators. However fact that most of the copywrite court cases end up not about giving back to the artist. It's about corporates controlling everything.
I felt bad for the women who was interviewed in the RIP: A Remix Manifesto. She illegally downloaded two dozens of music and charged with so much money when she could have gotten the music cheap from elsewhere. Fact that the copywrite laws are attacking poor citizens made everything wrong. What is the purpose of the law? Where is it?
 
 
I am really concerned about Girl Talk's future. I am pretty sure he is getting sued soon or later due to his illegal use of copywrited music. But I do love his music and I am not the only one. He shouldn't be restricted by laws that are supposed to promote new ideas not prison them. Movements such as Creative Commons should be embraced to share and able recreate new art freely.
 
Ideas cannot be owned by anyone. They are not for profits or power. It's about life that cannot be captivated but to amplify and discover the new world.
 

hackers - - the creative ones?

In a dark room, dim computer monitor fills space. Heavy glasses on a young guy reflects the screen of what he is working on. His eyes are constantly moving watching a screen full of a lot of windows with secret codes. Fingers moving nervously, creating rhythmic sound of keyboard typing. He just broke into Microsoft's developement department data base. He copies all confidential documents into a small USB. Soon, he heads out and exchange his USB with a suitcase from men in black in the alley. This is what I have imagined when I thought about "hackers."

As the computer technology develop, the fear of hackers grew especially in pop culture. For example, Lyle, played by Seth Green, in the Italian Job (2003) is a hacker who hacks into Los Angela's traffic light system and creates the biggest traffic jam in order to help his crew steal the money back. Also new Live Free or Die Hard (2007) is about John McClane fighting against internet-based terrorists/hackers who threatens the government. Media only portrays only the dark, stealing or illegal activities of hackers. I also thought hackers were bad guys because of the movies I saw. Actually, this wasn't true.

Starting from John Draper's Phone Phreaking, hacking is about expanding the limit, recreating somthing  other people didn't see especially on new technology field. Phone Phrekers would tune into specific frequencies or with the Blue Boxes, another type of Phone Phrekings, they would call internationally and listen to random foreign voicemails or call anyone for free. It could be wrong......but they were just doing it for fun! Fun!

Like Dadaists or Fluxus artists, hackers are the same: they want to break the traditional values and create new things that nobody had never thought of but in a specific compuer/telecommunication field. Hackers would look like computer nerds but I got to consider them as another group of artists. Just with different medium and ways of doing it. The idea, the idea is no different from my artistic goals.  I want to create something that's eyes wide-opending and new perspectives. Anybody can be artists, including the hackers.

Nevertheless, media likes to overexaggerate facts. Hacking is one of the victims. Hackers, such as the legendary Kevin Mitnik who got sentenced for around six years because of his many, many illegal hacking activities were the hot issues that news only talked about.

Either way, the pure idea of hacking is no differnt from Duchamp's Ready-made objects. Finding new and creative ways in computer, internet, and networking should be welcomed by the society. It's just few people with evil minds are the problems! Afterall, Mitnik is now a CEO of Mitnik Security Consulting that actually helps small or big corporates to protect themselves from getting hacked. I think he is a good guy now.


Hacking -- -
I want to be a hacker, too, the good ones!