Design Daytripper: Somebody's watching me

There are fewer and fewer places in the city that go unrecorded. Security cameras have become a regular feature of our landscape. So common, in fact, that most of the time we don't even notice them. And our level of awareness (or lack of awareness) of security cameras is usually an intentional design decision.

Some surveillance machinery is well hidden, designed to be completely innocuous, placed under glass domes or behind one-way mirrors. These cameras are intended to go unacknowledged.

The thing is, once you start to notice hidden cameras, you'll see them all over the place. They're above doorways, near entrances, in elevators, and almost anywhere that money transactions occur. In this latter case, it's not uncommon to see your own face projected back to you on a highly-visible television screen. That screen says, "Don't try anything. We know exactly what you look like."

(Few things make you look more suspicious -- and raise the attention of security personal -- quite like actively seeking out security cameras and then taking photos of them.)

There's a second set of security cameras: Big, garish, nasty-looking devices. These cameras are designed to be highly-visible. Commonly found in public spaces, down alleyways and over loading-dock doors, the obvious physical presence of these cameras is enough of a deterrent -- it hardly matters whether someone is monitoring the feed or if the cameras are even operational. It's the possibility someone's recording you that provides discouragement. (From doing what? Well, that's up to you.)

In fact, this is the most interesting design aspect of security cameras -- that the possibility of being caught breeds compliance. Their design takes advantage of this. Take Toronto's "Red Light" cameras: Installed at select intersections, these are designed to catch drivers who run a red light. In almost all instances, these red light intersections are preceded by a large warning sign. Drivers see the sign and, out of fear of being caught, choose not to run the light. Here, the sign itself becomes the deterrent. Whether the camera actually works or even exists is a non-issue.

In the United Kingdom, some communities installed fake speed cameras in an effort to slow down drivers. The cameras themselves were empty boxes recording nothing, and they were highly effective at calming their streets.

In a few instances across Toronto, we came upon signs warning us that we were being recorded. After intense searching, there were no cameras in evidence. Big brother paranoia, or smart design?

(This post's funky title is courtesy of '80's one-hit superstars Rockwell. See the video for "Somebody's watching me" here, because surveillance paranoia is soooo retro-'80's.)