Tracing Angels - Satellites and Social Movements

What could be more luminous than a space traversed with messages? Look at the sky, even right above us. It's traversed by planes, satellites, electromagnetic waves from television, radio, fax, electronic mail. The world we are immersed in is a space-time of communication. Why shouldn't I call it angel space, since this means the messengers, the systems of mailmen, of transmissions in the act of passing or the space through which they pass? Do you know, for example, that at every moment there are at least a million people on flights through the sky, as though immobile or suspended - nonvariables with variations? Indeed, we live in a century of angels.

[Michel Serres with Bruno Latour: Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time]

[Video - Real-time Satellites in Google Earth uploaded by gearthblog on YouTube]

It was a recent post on the Google Earth Blog that reminded me of French philosopher Michel Serres' curious angelology. The post relates to a Google Earth plugin that was created by a developer for Analytic Graphics by a developer called Matt Amato (visualised above). The plugin uses openly available data published by U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) relating to over 13,000 man made objects orbiting the earth, including active and retired communications satellites along with other assorted space debris.

Fascinating as this is it doesn't help us penetrate the sense of Serre's opaque invocation of angels. While orbiting satellites are absolutely necessary for the transmission of global communications, if we sit back and track the relays we actually miss the messages passing invisibly between them. How do you capture angels in flight?

[Video - 24 Hours Of Air Traffic - World Mercator Projection uploaded by Airboyd.TV on YouTube]

Created by Technorama on behalf of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the visualisation above used a data set provided by the Flight Stats website that tracked the departures and arrivals of commercial flights from approximately 9,000 civil airports over the course of 24 hours. While we appear to see a time lapse of the actual flight paths it is important to note that successive positions of each flight have been interpolated from the data concerning arrivals and departures. What we actually see then is only one possible flight path.

Here it strikes me that the trope of the angel was introduced by Serres' precisely to throw such idealisations into question. In the course of his conversations with Bruno Latour the figure of the angel was introduced in the context of the need for a means of describing the fluctuations of global events precisely in a situation where the 'the widest relationality is possible'. His concern is that in a world of global telecommunication it is necessary to be able to provide global descriptions, but without abstraction, reductionism or falling into the imposible task of trying to explain everything:

A verb or a substantive chosen from the galaxy of Ideas, from the categories either in consciousness or in the subject, spawns systems or histories that are static, even if they claim to describe a process of becoming. It's better to paint a picture of relations and rapports - like the percolating basin of a glacial river, unceasingly changing its bed and showing and admirable network of forks, some of which freeze or silt up, while others open up - or like a cloud of angels that passes, or the list of prepositions, or the dance of flames.

It is through this self-consciously constructed modern myth of the angel that he seeks to promote a sensitivity to the multiplicity of messengers and messages that is often overlooked in the supposition of a single overriding message or meaning, and an openness or hospitality to the contingent events that the fortuitous encounters of those messengers and their messages bring about. For Serres the virtue of angels is that they are 'restless', unsystematic' and cannot be pinned down. Though their passing can be traced, their location remains uncertain:

I imagine that for every angel there is a corresponding preposition. But a preposition does not transport messages; it indicates a network of possible paths, either in space or time.

Above, below, before, behind, amongst, inside or outside; the number of possible prepositions correspond to the number of media. And multiplying the media is likely to multiply the number of mediators. One interesting example might involve the innovation of the Sukey anti-kettling tool. What is amazing about the Sukey tolls are that all of the technology is openly available and requires only a relatively small amount of technical knowledge to set up. Through the combined use of mobile telephony, the internet, and old fashioned word of mouth, it enables the Sukey team to crowd source geo-located information on police positions at demonstrations and relay that back to users so as to indicate police positions relative to the users. All this is achieved without disclosing the users' locations to the police force attempting to kettle them. Electronic messages are relayed between protestors, whose own bodies are a signal or message to the powers that be by virtue of their co-presence on the streets.

I wonder then whether Serres' thought might have something to contribute to an understanding of the role played by online social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in the formation of new social movements and particularly the events unfolding in North Africa and the Middle East right now?

London Education Cuts Protest - 24th November 2010

[Video - Education Cuts Protest - 24th November 2010 by Urban Orienteer on Vimeo]

On the 24th November 2010 Urban Orienteer joined the student March from ULU to Whitehall to protest the proposed government spending cuts on education.

A bit late but I thought it might be worth showing a different side of the days events.

The best part for me was when the dash at Aldwych. The police ruined it for themselves by blocking the route along the Strand, so everyone diverted round King's to the river...much to the confusion of both the police and oncoming traffic. All good fun. My highlight of the day! 

After the police got everyone back on track they made their way via Trafalgar Square to the road block at Whitehall. I Slipped out of the kettle just before the clampdown. Note the kettle was in place well before anyone started using that knackered Police van as a climbing frame.

As the fun was over I did the off. Didn't have any sugar cubes for the horses.

A message from the first post ideological generation...

[Video - Coalition of Resistance conference | School Student | 27 Nov 2010 by adycousins on YouTube]

15 year old student Barnaby speaking of his experience in the Whitehall kettle at the Coalition of Resistance conference last Saturday.

via Anthem

Not only photographers but dogs too...

[Image - I'm A Photographer, Not A Terrorist by Adrian Toll]

Following my previous post announcing PHNATs Mass Photo Gathering last Saturday, I thought it was about time I provided an update. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend but thankfully there has been a respectable amount of press coverage: BBC, Guardian and Amateur Photographer. Encouraging reports suggest that over 2000 professional and amateur photographers were in attendance. Oh, and don't forget the dog!

[Image - I am a dog not a terrorist by Helen Duffett]

Aside from a very minor disagreement reported between a PCSO and a young woman just after noon, the protest seems to have passed peacefully. Spirits were no doubt raised by the attendance of several colourful and unusual characters including The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

[Image - Mass Photo Gathering - Trafalgar Square by Loz Flowers]

[Image - Anonymous - Mass Photo Gathering - Trafalgar Square by Loz Flowers]

[Image - The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence by Loz Flowers]

The event clearly provided a great opportunity for photographers from a range of backgrounds to get together and mingle in a public place. This is a rarity and can only help efforts to build a more general awareness about s44 and related issues. In this regard the protest was a definate success. However, more events are required in order to encourage the government to reasses current anti-terror legislation. Hopefully I'll catch you at the next.

Many thanks to Loz Flowers, Helen Duffett and Adrian Toll for agreeing to allow use of their excellent photos under Creative Commons licences. More photos can be found on Flickr's Mass Photo Gathering Group.

NoBorders proposes a day out...out of control!

[Image - Flier for Life's too short to be controlled! from London NoBorders]

Following my previous post on PHNAT's Mass Photo Gathering taking place tomorrow, I just discovered that London NoBorders will also be staging a further series of protests later that afternoon. The first is planned for 2pm at St. Pancras International. The second will take place at 4:30pm in Piccadilly Circus.

The first protest concerns the new e-borders controls established their by the UK Border Agency. Closer to the current concerns of Urban Orienteer, the second protest is intended to raise awareness about the constant surveillance of unwitting commuters, shoppers and tourists passing through London's West End. Somewhere underneath Piccadilly Circus and the Trocadero lies a network of tunnels leading to the City of Westminster's CCTV Control Room. It was for this reason that pictures of Piccadilly and the Trocadero were used in the images produced for my current collaboration with Mark at Dancing Eye. Further information here. 

If you do happen to attend any of the events on Saturday, please feel free to let us know how you get on by commenting below.

If you're a photographer...

[Image - Flier for Mass Photo Gathering from I'm a Photographer, Not a Terrorist!]

Amid growing concerns that photographers are being singled out for stop and search under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, the campaign I'm a photographer, Not a terrorist! (PHNAT) are inviting you to join their "mass photo gathering in defence of street photography". The event was organised following the stop and search of architectural photographer Grant Smith on the 8th of December last year. Details of that incident are available on the campaign's blog where they ask police Didn't you get the memo?

The memo they refer was a communication on the 4th of December from Chief Constable Andrew Trotter, Head of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Media Advisory, addressed to all Chief Constables and Commissioners in England and Wales. In the document (reprinted here) Trotter clarifies that: 

Section 44 gives officers no specific powers in relation to photography and there is no provision in law for the confiscation of equipment or the destruction of images, either digital or on film. 

However, only days after the incident involving Grant Smith the Guardian journalist Paul Lewis was also stopped. To the police's embarrassment Lewis a colleague managed to capture the scene on video. Taking place at the foot of 30 St Mary Ax it uncannily enacts one of the scenes portrayed in the posters I've been working on as part of my current collaboration with Mark at Dancing Eye.

Trotter's memo was by no means the first in 2009. Back in July the Metropolitan Police Service offered their own 'advice for photographers' regarding the application of sections 43, 44 and 58a of the Terror Act in relation to photography in public spaces (revised copy here). Commenting about that advice on the Guardian website the photojournalist Marc Vallée proposed that continued use of these "blunt instruments" would be viewed by professional photographers as "part of an ongoing campaign to create a hostile environment for photography in the public sphere". Responding to these concerns the Home Office then issued their own circular in August. 

While sources within the police report insist that the problem is merely one of confusion, resulting from an "internal urban myth" circulating amongst lower ranking officers and PCSOs, others are inclined to think that it is institutional and systematic. In early January this year The Independent reported how, on Christmas day, a group of tourists who went to see the Queen at Sandringham church had their cameras confiscated by police. Dominic Lawson who wrote the article suggests that "a peculiarly modern form of bureaucratic insanity" is to blame, and warns that "if we are all under suspicion, we are all under threat". It is not only professional photographers who are affected then. Amateur film makers, tourists, painters, train spotters and even children under 10 have all been approached by police acting under section 44.

The police are naturally keen to encourage the view that concerns such as Lawson's or Vallée's are overstated. However, the findings of Lord Carlile's 2009 review of anti-terror legislation (pdf) provided significant evidence of a vested, institutional interest within the police in its systematic misuse. In his report Lord Carlile agreed with the police chiefs that "it is essential that the police must know what they are doing, with every officer being accurately briefed" (p.28), but only after specifying that "Any arbitrariness on the part of the police is unlawful" (ibid). Elaborating on this more fundamental concern he raised controversy by suggesting that s44 had been used to help "balance" race statistics. Quoting from the report at length:

Examples of poor or unnecessary use of section 44 abound. I have evidence of cases where the person stopped is so obviously far from any known terrorism profile that, realistically, there is not the slightest possibility of him/her being a terrorist, and no other feature to justify the stop. In one situation the basis of the stops being carried out was numerical only, which is almost certainly unlawful and in no way an intelligent use of the procedure. Chief officers must bear in mind that a section 44 stop, without suspicion, is an invasion of the stopped person’s freedom of movement. I believe that it is totally wrong for any person to be stopped in order to produce a racial balance in the section 44 statistics. There is ample anecdotal evidence that this is happening. (p.29)

The reasons that s44 lends itself so readily to these kinds of abuses are threefold:

1. Unlike other articles of anti-terror legislation s44 only applies in specially 'authorised areas'. The difficulty for the public is their locations are both secret; insofar as they are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (as reported here), but also temporary; subject to renewal by the Home Secretary every 28 days at the request of a Chief Constable. The result is that members of the public are unable to verify whether they are in an s44 area or not, and hence which of their rights apply at any given time.

2. While the preceding section 43 enables police officers to conduct stop and search anywhere in the country, as long as they have 'reasonable suspicion' of terrorist activity, s44 allows police to dispense with that requirement. As such the application of s44 is discretionary and relies on the officer's judgement. 

3. The power to use s44 has been extended to PCSOs who can use it in designated s44 areas, when authorised, and under the supervision of a constable. Problems inevitably arise in the absence of immediate supervision or when the officers in charge are themselves unsure. PCSOs have been known to take it upon themselves to act. The events leading up to the arrest of Italian student Simona Bonomo in November illustrate this.

While senior police officers might have us believe that the problem lies with a few individuals who are failing to get the message, I'd argue that the real difficulty lies with the nature of the legislation itself. By dispensing with the requirement for reasonable suspicion s44 diminishes police accountability. In doing so it undermines the legitimacy they garner as public servants. In this regard it is worth considering to the eighth Principle of Good Policing: 

To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.

Another relevant criticism of Lord Carlile's concerned the Met's extensive use of s44, "throughout London and on a continuous basis" (p.30), even though the stricter s43 would have sufficed. Now we find that legislation innocuously proposed as having application only in exceptional circumstances, but within a spatially and temporally limited zone, has somehow become the rule. In so doing it approximates the form of arbitrary rule that Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has designated the State of Exception.

Beyond being a mere inconvenience, stop and search under s44 is an encroachment on the civil liberties of us all. Last week the European Court Of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in the case of Gillian and Quinton v. The United Kingdom that stop and search under s44 of the Terrorism Act was "not in accordance with the law". Their argument was that "in the absence of any obligation on the part of the officer to show a reasonable suspicion, it is likely to be difficult if not impossible to prove that the power was improperly exercised". The Guardian's summary can be found here. Current indications suggest that the British Government will appeal the ruling.

In order to show them what you think why not grab your camera and head down to Trafalgar Square on Saturday. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend as I'll be convalescing after an operation I'm having later in week. If anyone attends and would like me to post their Flickr set please let me know. Better yet, how about writing a guest report?

In the meantime you can visit the I'm a photographer, Not a terrorist! blog. In addition to compiling a map of sites where photography is restricted in the UK, they've also prepared a downloadable Bust Card that advises you on your rights if stopped under s44. Good luck!

Which Sort Of Thing?

[Image - Down With This Sort Of Thing by Urban Orienteer]