Speaking of George Orwell, The Evening Standard presents an eye-catching graphic illustrating the proliferation of surveillance cameras in the UK:
According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people in the country - and 20 per cent of cameras globally. It has been calculated that each person is caught on camera an average of 300 times daily.
The graphic shows the location of Orwell’s London flat at 27B Canonbury Square, where he was living at the time of his death in 1950: “within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.”
Orwell’s view of the tree-filled gardens outside the flat is under 24-hour surveillance from two cameras perched on traffic lights.
The flat’s rear windows are constantly viewed from two more security cameras outside a conference centre in Canonbury Place.
In a lane, just off the square, close to Orwell’s favourite pub, the Compton Arms, a camera at the rear of a car dealership records every person entering or leaving the pub.
Within a 200-yard radius of the flat, there are another 28 CCTV cameras, together with hundreds of private, remote-controlled security cameras used to scrutinise visitors to homes, shops and offices.
Would Orwell be surprised? Disappointed, probably, but not surprised:
Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live–did live, from habit that became instinct–in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
I noticed Sunday that there’s a surveillance camera at the carousel in front of the Discovery Museum, presumably to discourage vandalism. Wonder if there are any more cameras up the block, by the free speech chalkboards? After all, the Constitution doesn’t guarantee the right to *anonymous* free speech.
That just gave me an idea for a photo essay. What if I went around town taking pictures of every surveillance camera I could find? Then put them on my website with exact locations?
Sounds like you need Google Maps http://maps.google.com/.
Perhaps the movie, V for Vendetta, wasn’t all that far-fetched.
Good post…
Would you do only official surveillance cameras, or webcams too, like The Hook’s?
If you do take pictures, be sure to get one of the warning sign posted at the carousel. The picture of the camera looks more like one of a gun, and my niece and I thought when we first looked at it that we’d be shot if we went anywhere near it.