Surveillance, Sousveillance, and the Use and Abuse of Recording Technologies

Informatics 295

This seminar course will focus on discussions of recording technologies and their impacts on society.  Readings will cover topics as broad as reality television, performance art, homeland security, and consumer targeting and data mining of consumer data.  We will examine the problem from theoretical, design-oriented, and technical viewpoints.  Students should expect to complete required and optional readings, present these readings in class, and participate actively in discussions each week. 

Course Overview	[top]

This course will engage you to consider a variety of ways of thinking about recording and recording technologies in today's society.  We will expand on notions of privacy, surveillance, performance art and more.  This course will include a balance of legal, ethical, technical, social, political, and artistic considerations and as such, you are encouraged to work together, in interdisciplinary teams to make your own meaning of the reading and project materials. 

The class objectives are:

• To facilitate communication between students from a variety of disciplines who are all interested in the implications and designs of recording and tracking technologies;
• To provide future designers, policymakers, and researchers with concepts and strategies for making decisions about recording and tracking;
• To introduce the student to the wide literature surrounding these issues;
• To develop and to stress the importance of critical thinking around potential sensitive or hot button issues.

Gillian R. Hayes

• Office: Donald Bren Hall, 5072
• Phone: 949-824-1483
• Email: gillianrh [at] ics [dot] uci [dot] edu
• Office Hours: by appointment in DBH

There are two required text books for the class. Both are available at the UCI Bookstore and through many online booksellers. Additional readings assigned during the semester will be provided.

• The Digital Person
  by Daniel J. Solove
• The Limits of Privacy
  by Amatai Etzioni 

Selected readings will also be chosen from research papers and from the book, "Loving Big Brother." I highly recommend this book, but it is very expensive, and so I have not chosen it as a required text for the course.