ANTI-SURVEILLANCE TOOL

DESCRIPTION

Censorship and the disappearing of culture are significant in my country. Throughout the past decades, Chinese has been reduced to simplified forms, the traditional form has been gradually forgetton. The pronounciation of many characters are modified due of public preference. Traditional festivals are treated less and less important. And these are just small reflections of what is happening to my culture. There are a lot more cultures have lost over time. We gain and developed a lot these years, but we are losting a lot as well. "文化正在消失，传统仅属于过去" means “the culture is disappearing, the tradition exists only in the past".

DESIGN PROCESS

Initial hand sketches:



As I transfer to p5 sketch, I start with setting up the main contents. I write the first half of the sentence "文化正在消失" in simplified Chinese, the second half "傳統僅屬於過去" in traditional Chinese. Represent now and the past. As hovering from left to right, the sentence changes. And there is the seal-like text applying onto canvas.

With different interactive effects, try hovering to the left and to the right:

Then I add a layer of censorship to hide the main message. So as landing the page, there is a false "404 page not found" warning, pretending this is a blank page. That is my approach to anti-survillance. Hovering on the canvas from left to right will bring out mosaic patterns. The seceret message will never be found unless you click on the canvas. And while you the mouse is pressed, you could hold on to the mouse and move from left to right or right to left. There is the strip seal like text being applyed onto canvas along with the movements of mouse. Furthurmore, if you move your mouse to the right, the second part of the message will show up. Release the mouse anytime will go back to the "404" page. Final sketch:

REFLECTION

Survillance is all around us. And a lot of us are taking certain approaches to resist survillance. There are both positive and negative aspect about survillance, depending on how and where to use it. In my case, the false "404 not found page" covers up the message that the culture is disappearing. And this is what our governments are doing often. Pretending everything is good, and hiding the fact. Freedom of speech on social platforms is limited when relating to "sensitive topics". The "404 not found page" can also been seen as a pretection to what the real message behind.