London. Shortly before the Olympics. The Underground stations here have become one of the places in the world with the heaviest surveillance. A member of the Zurich !Media Group Bitnik sits down on the ground, in view of a CCTV camera. She opens a yellow suitcase and operates a switch inside it. The camera image malfunctions, a chessboard appears on the monitor in the control room, and a voice can be heard on the loudspeakers: »I’ve hijacked your surveillance camera! I’m the one with the yellow suitcase.« The image shows us the woman in the Underground station, and then switches back to the chessboard: »How about a game of chess?« the voice asks. »You are white. I am black. Call me or text me to make your move! This is my phone number: 075 8246 0851.«
This intervention, in which the unencrypted radio communication between the camera and the control room is manipulated, allows for a complex structure of play. First, there is the offer of a game of chess, which nobody in the control rooms has ever accepted so far. This is hardly surprising, since the people who sit behind the monitors are often not very highly educated, precariously employed, and themselves subject to a strict regime of control. For them, to engage in the game would carry a very high risk. The offer itself is part of an extended system of play between Bitnik and the control center. Once Bitnik has made the first move, it is the other party’s turn. This entire occurrence is so far removed from the scenarios listed in the instruction book, the authenticity of the image on the screen so questionable, that often a door will open, and the person behind the camera will come out and see for themselves what is going on. This gives Bitnik the next move. The game is now in full swing.
By initiating this game, Bitnik succeeds in profoundly reassessing a space created and characterized by surveillance. In many aspects, the logic of the game is the exact opposite of the logic of surveillance. In the game, all players have equal rights. Everyone follows the same rules and has the same chances. Surveillance on the other hand is fundamentally based on inequality. Some are seen, others can see. The game brings different actors into one framework of action, and surveillance separates them from one another. The game is open-ended and allows for surprises, while surveillance aims to control situations and make adverse events impossible. The game is a form of communication, surveillance is anti-communication.
The moment the door opens and someone steps in front of the camera, the surveillance situation is suspended and the game situation established. A new space has been created, in which the formatting enforced by structures of power is overridden and the random outcomes of the game are the main point. This new space is short-lived, it disappears as soon as the Underground employee makes sense of the situation and returns to his control room. But maybe not quite. Moments of loss of control leave a deep impression. Something always sticks. In the memories of those involved, in artifacts that are produced, in stories and descriptions. Where these sediments will wash up, where they will reappear and possibly layer together to form new moments, is impossible to say. Greil Marcus compared them to »Lipstick Traces« in his eponymous book. Faded and easy to overlook, yet very evocative to those who know how to read them.
The work »Surveillance Chess« was exhibited from the 28 July to 9 September 2012 in Zurich, Helmhaus; it was installed in the Parisian Galerie La Gaîté Lyrique from 27 October to 30 December 2012.
Translated by Jennifer Taylor