In Berlin I have become interested in surveillance.
The DDR was infamous for their State Security (the Stasi) looming over every facet of it’s citizens lives.
The DDR was infamous for their State Security (the Stasi) looming over every facet of it’s citizens lives.
The Stasi’s presence in the country was pervasive and
working in the midst of Gedenkstatt, the Stasi’s secret walled off city of
office blocks, electronics facilities, surveillance technology, forging
machinery, data and records centre, chemical experimentation lab, and secret
prison, is for me a daily reminder of the nature of that society.
After going on a tour of Hohenschonhausen prison we watched “The
Lives of Others.” It is a film about a Stasi agent who steps outside the
strictures of his assignment in an ill-fated attempt to save a couple who he has
become obsessed with. They stand out because they live honestly, which is at such odds with how
disingenuous life in East Germany had become. Working in the midst of the Stasi
facility coupled with the film has heightened my sensitivity to the nature of state voyeurism.
The State in an-ever increasing attempt to protect itself, its ideas,
and people grows a security apparatus. On my first morning in Berlin I went for a run and found myself fascinated by a large old less-used complex of buildings. Later I found, this area was also used
by the State Security Services. It made me aware that “security” consumed an
ever increasing percentage of the talents,
land, resources, funding and finally psychology of this East German nation.
Yet for all it’s sinister appearances one is also struck by
how amateur the DDR was when compared to our secret society. We have recently become aware that our
governments are involved in secret renditions, black sites, enhanced
interrogation[1], drone
strikes, remote targeted assassinations, rules of engagement, the down loading
of all our emails and texts, back doors into computer programs, paying internet
companies for access, private security contractors, and massive data storage
facilities in the desert. We have become the Stasi global in scope.
Today, it is fashionable to expose the depths of the
intrusive nature of this small communist country. The Germans behind the wall
called themselves the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and in order to preserve
their republic they annulled Democracy. But from them we learn that no matter
how consumed a culture can be with security you can never be totally and
completely secure[2] even behind
a wall.
[1] The Stasi
felt enlightened because they used no physical torture
[2] and possibly
the very act of making a security state ensures ever increasing opposition to
it.
phone pic of the view from my painting studio window
Painting: "Stairs" (from Stasi office building turned studio ... maybe eventually Langley will become a large studio space ... "IMAGINE")
photo's of Hohenschohnhausen prison
Etching: "title yet to be determined"
Photo: "after the data collecton (? title in the works)#1
Photo: #2
phone pic of the view from my painting studio window
Painting: "Stairs" (from Stasi office building turned studio ... maybe eventually Langley will become a large studio space ... "IMAGINE")
photo's of Hohenschohnhausen prison
Etching: "title yet to be determined"
Photo: "after the data collecton (? title in the works)#1
Photo: #2
