The Watcher Watched.
July 5, 2008
Saturday morning — cooler and greyer than the past few days — finds me four chapters from the end of my edits and feeling very satisfied with the result, if somewhat tired. Settling into that “end of project” feeling, I’m looking forward to a short break before properly starting the research and planning for We Are Watching. Said break might not last too long, however, as I rarely find I am at my best “in between” projects.
Speaking of We Are Watching. Earlier this morning I read this BBC article concerning Google’s plans to launch the Street View mapping tool (a function of Google Earth) in the UK. For those who aren’t familiar with it, this particular tool allows you, on certain streets, in certain cities, to view the street and surrounding buildings etc as if you were actually there. There are privacy concerns, which you can read about here, but that isn’t really what I want to talk about.
The article prompted me to boot up Google Earth and head over to the States to check out some of the Street Views. Whilst I was doing this, I was also thinking about We Are Watching. As the title might suggest, my next novel is definitely going to have “surveillance” overtones — so the possibilities that Google Earth might provide as a research tool were playing through my mind. I’d used Street Views previously and, to be honest, even then I found it a little unnerving. Today, however, the mild discomfort I’d felt before this time hit me full force.
I was on a street called Maple Avenue. I won’t give exact details, but I suppose there are many such locations in the States. Autumn leaves, wooden faced buildings and an overwhelming sense — no doubt the product of the Google Earth Street View tool — of desolation and emptiness. The stillness that the photographs invoke made the place seem like a ghost town. It was oddly intense, unlike anything I’ve experienced whilst sitting in front of the computer before, and my first reaction was, “I want to capture this feeling on paper.” Watching, looking at those empty streets, those dark windows, I realised with a shudder that I felt watched.
A metaphor for the 21st century? I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that I’m really beginning to find We Are Watching.
July 5, 2008 at 15:07
My son recently discovered this. A few weeks ago, he came racing into the kitchen, so excited he was shouting, “Mom! You’ve got to come and look at this!”
I followed him into his room and looked at his computer monitor. I was staring at the front of house. I instinctively looked over my shoulder for a second. It was a very creepy feeling.
I asked him to show me how he had done that. He typed our address into Google and it took him straight to it. First, from a sky view, from which he zoomed in and “drove” the cursor down our street and turned into our front yard.
We know it was a recent shot because the picture reflected some specific yard work that had just been done.
I definitely felt like we were being watched.
July 5, 2008 at 16:27
It was a little different for me — the UK not having been mapped in this way, yet — but I can certainly imagine how you felt. Strange, isn’t it? I mean, the overhead photography is weird enough — being able to look at your own back garden/yard from somewhere up there — but to be able to “walk” down the street like that… fantastic, clever and just a little worrying!
For me, it was the medium itself that somehow affected me. As I was going down Maple Avenue, virtually, it became inexplicably real. I became very aware of the people living unseen in the houses… and even more aware of the bizarre possibility that they might somehow be looking back at me (through the computer!) My cosy sense of watching without being seen evaporated, as ridiculous as I know that to be. Very briefly… it was almost a feeling of paranoia. One of those big “what if” moments that scare the bejesus out of me but which are invaluable to Writer Me!
I do love Google Earth, though. We have some wonderful countryside around these here parts, but to get to some of it sometimes requires taking roads that can, frankly, be pretty scary if you haven’t got an off-road vehicle! So before we to exploring somewhere new (and there’s always somewhere new!), we Google Earth it to find the best route — with the best road conditions!
July 5, 2008 at 18:44
Google have to up their privacy policies – Viacom are making sure of that!
July 5, 2008 at 21:33
As I was reading your comment, I was thinking exactly that. It makes for some excellent writing material. Especially for what you have lined up.
July 6, 2008 at 09:55
Will: That’s a right balls up, isn’t it? And I’m not really sure where I stand on the argument. I’m very big on protecting intellectual property, naturally, but YouTube is actually becoming one of the first places I visit when I’m looking for information on a given subject these days. I much prefer watching a lecture on something I’m researching than reading about it! And, as well as this, Google being forced to hand over the viewing log is a serious concern. I’m with the Electronic Frontier Foundation on this point — a setback to privacy rights, for which I lay the blame at the feet of the US court system rather than Google.
Lottie: Yes, there’s almost a weird synchronicity to it! Especially when you factor in Will’s comment on privacy policies. At the moment, we only have to worry about viewing logs being handed over to US courts etc — we are undoubtedly being watched. But imagine a few years down the line, technological capability expanding exponentially… what if the process became more intrusive, more invasive? Government agencies covertly creating software — like Google Earth, for example — that watches the watcher, monitors, records, reports… surveillance to the nth degree.
Fun, or what?
July 7, 2008 at 02:22
Definitely fun, Gary. Sounds like you’ve got a good one lined up.