this task documents my walk from the bart station exit on 11th street and broadway to my work at jack london square. i walk this path five days a week and these are all the cameras that see me.

as a result of this task, i realized that big brother is NOT watching you. he may be listening to your phone calls and scanning your e-mail, but definitely not watching in the literal sense. i documented nine cameras total, most of which were used to overlook businesses or money. only two were installed by "the government" and both of those are stationed at the entrance of a police station/jail on broadway.

watch the watchers had me looking for cameras everywhere i went for a couple of days afterward, and i have to say that i'm surprised at how few cameras there are. in a time when america is under the pretence of being "at war" i find security to be unacceptably lax at muni and bart stations, especially after the train bombings in madrid and the bus bombings in london. public cameras are almost non-existent in places where you would expect to see them, for example at&t/sbc/willie mays park. am i just not seeing these cameras? are they that well hidden? i don't think so.

i've noticed in other tasks that security is not a major concern of the government five years after 9/11. in one task, five of us walked into a "secured", fenced-in area area underneath the golden gate bridge in broad daylight only to not find alarms, cameras, guards at one of the most high profile terrorist targets in america. on another recent task, dead drop, i've noticed there are plenty of places to hide - and i must watch my language here, because they are checking internet - "large packages" undetected by cameras or security.

i'm not suggesting that the united states become a police state. far from it. but i should say that i am very curious about the government's half-assed approach to what the news media is proclaiming to be "the war on terror" and "world war 3". is this war real, or what?