Leaving university is going to be an odd one, like riding a bike for the first time without stabilisers; you know you can do it but there is that nagging fear and doubt. What if you can't? Today, having just completed my final writing task, I found myself beginning to make new work. I've not even finished the current piece yet so it may be jumping the gun slightly but what the heck...
Today I watched the fantastic channel 4 documentary 'Erasing David' (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/erasing-david/4od) and its managed to both excite and scare me in equal measure. According to the programme the UK is now in the top three surveillance states in the world, coming third to China and Russia. There are also an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain, one for every 14 people. Our information is held in multiple databases, from the NHS to Virgin Media. Every web page we visit and every phone call we make is stored, by our internet/phone provider, for a minimum of 12 months. It seems that my favourite film, 'The Lives of Others' is becoming less of an entertainment medium and more a day to day reality.
But, apart from feeling like an unwilling contestant on big brother, how does this really affect me/art/stuff? Well for a start I really need to track down that CRB check I sort of forgot about... hmm.
My work is very much concerned with borders and boundaries but this has really got me thinking. Off the back of this programme I began looking at Frank Ahearn's website 'How To Disappear' (http://www.frankahearn.com/) which, while full of interesting hints and tips seems a little bit ironic. Surely, if all of our internet searches are saved, using the internet as a way to disappear seems a little silly, but I digress. Ahearn states that the key to disappearing is to take every piece of information on us that is out there and destroy it beyond belief- but having just glimpsed the sheer amount of stuff on me that is out there that is no easy task.
Getting the information that is held on us however does seem relatively easy; a letter or phone call requesting 'subject access' will get all the details sent to you. But, unfortunately its not held on one single database, each company needs to be contacted separately. So that means to even begin getting hold of this information I would need to contact both of my banks, my previous bank, the student loans company, the DVLA, the criminal records bureau, the passport people, Nottingham Trent University, Virgin media, Orange etc... and thats before I even begin thinking about online services I have used, hotmail, facebook, amazon... Suddenly it doesn't seem that simple does it?
But I did say that that I need to make some work, and I do have a whole summer stretching out before me. Maybe I should begin to try and track some of this information down? I am quite blase with my personal details; as a student with no real permanent address I am quite happy to fill my details in and check that terms and conditions box without giving it a moments notice.
First things first I think I'll find out what Orange hold about me. Having held a contract with them for three years now I'm sure they have a nice wad on me, and to be honest I'm not too keen on jumping in at the top with the banks or even worse the criminal records bureau. So, watch this space!
Right, now to track down that CRB...
