Surveillance Camera Disobedience

I only hope there is a happy face drawn on it.

William Lamson - NYC Artist

More Surveillance Camera Fun

More Than A Feeling - Boston Rocked by SpyCam Death

Boston singer Brad Delp installed a hidden camera in his fiancee’s sister’s bedroom – and killed himself nine days after he was caught.

Evidence given in the court case between Boston mainman Tom Scholz and a newspaper revealed how Delp, who committed suicide in 2007, was ashamed and apologetic after his spy device was found.

Events came to light as part of Scholz’s claim that the Boston Herald defamed him by suggesting he was to blame for his bandmate’s death. (more)

Out of Bond - Spy Movie Web Site Just Launched

 via spymaniac.com...
"Spymaniac.com, the ultimate online guide to all your favorite spy flicks. 

What’s fact, what’s fiction? History or fantasy? Which are the best spy films and why? The outrageous duds? Did the James Bond movies have any impact on real life? And would Angelina Jolie’s Evelyn Salt have learned all those stunts at the Farm?

Get answers to these and other questions here. Share your faves and reviews on Spymaniac.com, and discover great films you may never have heard about. Spymaniac is your community for exploring and sharing spy films, which are rated from zero daggers (worst) to five daggers (best)." (more)

"How Much Is Your Privacy Worth?"

"How Much Is Your Privacy Worth?" just opened at The Dutch Museum of Communications located in The Hague, Netherlands.

Illustrator and graphic designer Noma Bar designed this and other posters for the museum, which conducted research into the theme of privacy for its latest exhibition.
 

...the museum conducted an official survey, the results of which are now displayed in the museum and on its website. They also conducted a series of street interviews. Bar used some of the findings to create the posters. 

The following is a little cryptic due to Google's translation abilities, but you'll get the idea...

"The Museum for Communication pays special attention to the issue of privacy. Ruigrok research was commissioned by the museum research into the value of privacy among the Dutch public. Following this study, street interviews. The street interviews are presented in the museum, including exhibitions in the WE Blog, the Empire of back and forth Letter Secrets is the theme.

 

Of course, also to the visitor the question "How much is your privacy worth?" Made. In exchange for personal information they receive discounts on admission."

Draw Cubby and Become a Police Sketch Artist... for FREE

"Cubby" is the guy who just mugged you.

Now, you can draw him for the police!

SketchFace, created by Ali Daneshmandi, is an incredible free web application for creating a photo-realistic facial composite pictures. 

Be warned. You will probably blow the rest of your weekend playing with this. ~Kevin

Ali's amazing story...

Cubby

I started to learn using computer when I was 18 by learning Photoshop! Yes, I didn’t know how to use computers but I’d wanted to learn Photoshop :D . There was no one around me to help me on that. So I started by myself by trial and error besides reading Photoshop Help. This made me a self learner later on... I am a continue learner who is always anxious to create great and cool user experiences.

SpyCam Story #648 - Today in Video Voyeurism

Russia - A 71-year-old Moscow man has been charged with two felony counts of video voyeurism stemming from a police investigation that determined he allegedly secretly videotaped sexual encounters with a former girlfriend and then left graphic print-out images from those videos in her current boyfriend's vehicle. (more)

DC - In the last decade of the 1800s, a new word appeared in the lexicon: voyeurism. It was first used to describe a service offered at certain Paris brothels equipped with a peephole cut in a bedroom wall, but it might just as easily been invented to described the awesome new power of the first portable Kodak cameras that appeared on the market at the same time. Sepia-toned images from those early Instamatics are part of a fascinating new exhibition at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., titled "Snapshots: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard." Some of the most famous Post-Impressionists painters were also Kodak fans, and pointed the lens at the same subjects that fill their paintings—their wives, mistresses, and female models. "Snapshots: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard" is on view at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., until May 6. (more)

UK - A man has appeared before Carlisle magistrates to face two charges of voyeurism by recording “a private act” and two counts of sexual assault. (more)

FL - A Marion County Sheriff's Office corrections officer placed on unpaid leave after being arrested on charges of video voyeurism and unlawful use of a computer has resigned. (more)

AZ - Owen Dix pled guilty Feb. 6 to one count of photographing someone without their consent and one count of videotaping someone without their consent. He will be sentenced on March 12, 2012. Owen Dix, 35, took pictures of a child inside the boy's bathroom at Banks Elementary School on Dec. 12, 2011. (more)

Fun Stuff: Release Your Inner Muse, with Animoog

Alert: This app is available at 99 cents for about 25 more days. Then it goes to $29.99... and it's still a bargain.

This week work took me from New York to San Diego and back; about 10 hours on a plane. Animoog kept me captivated for most of my time in the air. The depth of musical creativity that I pulled from this was astounding. Not musically inclined? No problem, neither am I. I barely know a quarter note from a quarterhorse, yet after the first ten minutes I was making music. Beautiful sounds. Hey, the thing even records your songs for you. 

Bonus... The trips seemed like minutes instead of hours.

Have some fun this weekend. Relax. Make music. Regain your soul. You'll be surprised how good you'll feel afterward.

"Animoog is the first professional synthesizer designed for the iPad. Powered by Moog's new Anisotropic Synthesis Engine, Animoog captures the vast sonic vocabulary of Moog synthesizers and applies it to the modern touch surface paradigm, enabling any user to quickly sculpt incredibly fluid and dynamic sounds that live, breathe, and evolve as you play them." (more)

The Most Extensive Radio and Technical Museum List

If you have an interest in antique radios, TVs, computers and other technical equipment, this is the list to bookmark. Over 100 radio and technical museums around the world. Sponsored by radiomuseum.org

"Yuki 7 and the Gadget Girls" (for your morning coffee break)

 WHO IS YUKI 7? 

"Fashionista and spy girl Yuki 7, along with her team of beautiful secret agents, the Gadget Girls, will excite the world with their gorgeous outfits, amazing gadgets, and fabulous escapades! From their glamorous headquarters outside of Tokyo, this team of spies can crack any case and look stunning while they do it!" (video) (fan club)

Book written by Elizabeth Ito. Includes DVD with "Looks That Kill" and "A Kiss From Tokyo" short films + Special Bonus Features! 72 Pages. Paperback with Acetate Dust Jacket.

 

ABOUT THE CREATOR
Artist Kevin Dart dreamed up the character of Yuki 7 while In London on a business trip in 2008. Yuki and her glamorous, jet-setting lifestyle provided an outlet for Kevin's fascination with the 1960s, retro spy flicks, and powerful female characters. Working in his spare time between freelance illustration gigs, he put together Yuki's first book, "Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7", along with writer Ada Cole and a host of contributions from his close circle of friends around the animaton industry. The book debuted in Summer 2009 along with Yuki's first animated trailer, "A Kiss From Tokyo". Since then, Kevin has continued to expand Yuki's universe and is planning a new series of books and other exciting products.

Kevin currently lives in Pasadena, CA with his wife and works in the local animation industry.

When Computer Spy Art is Not Smart

Artist Kyle McDonald put a strange art project into practice when he installed what amounts to surveillance software on the public computers at an Apple store and used the images collected to create a presentation that he hoped would give us, by the facial expressions captured, insight into our relationship with the computers we use...

McDonald figured that Apple had decided the program wasn't a big deal. That was until four Secret Service men in suits woke him up on Thursday morning with a search warrant for computer fraud. They confiscated two computers, an iPod and two flash drives, and told McDonald that Apple would contact him separately. (more)

People Staring at Computers from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo. 

Dude, next time just Christo the store.

"Bug-in-a-Book" project at the Spy Museum - January 30th

David Simpson says...
We all love spy gear, from the wacky Maxwell Smart rotary-dial shoephone to the grab bag of goodies Bond always so nonchalantly snares from Q. Thank you, MAKE, for Volume 16, the "Spy Tech" issue, which featured Mad Magazine's iconic Spy vs. Spy on the cover. In that issue, you can find my wireless "Bug-in-a-Book" project. The guts come from readily available Radio Shack components (a mini FM transmitter for listening to your iPod through the car stereo and a grandpa-tech amplified listener). 

Fast forward: I'll be leading that workshop at the Spy Museum January 30th.

The session will open with an "NCIS-like" briefing, laying out an impeding threat and mission, but I can't divulge the full details here. Let's just say that this whole thing was triggered by an encrypted message intercepted by an allied listening post off the coast of Algeria on one of the long wave frequencies known to be used by a US-based black market arms dealer and certain intermediaries representing a radical militant religious group targeting pro-western nations. Maybe by now it's becoming clearer; the well-being of the free world lies in the hands of the young makers that attend this workshop and the intelligence they're able to gather during surveillance using their field-made Bug-in-a-Book. (more)

SpyCam Story #587 - Year's Weirdest Story

A New York University professor has an eye in the back of his head after undergoing a surgical procedure to install a camera in his skull, part of an art exhibition commissioned by a new museum in Qatar.

“I am going about my daily life as I did before the procedure, but I ask for a period of rest before I am going to give any interviews,” Professor Wafaa Bilal said in a statement issued Tuesday through a spokeswoman, Mahdis Keshavarz.

The surgery was performed in the U.S., according to Keshavarz. She declined to specify the hospital or doctor, saying Bilal preferred not to disclose that information until after he has healed. She also declined to specify the precise date of Bilal’s surgery, though as recently as Friday evening she said the procedure had not yet been performed.

The thumbnail-size camera implanted in his head will automatically snap one photograph per minute for an entire year, as The Wall Street Journal reported last week. Bilal, an assistant professor in the photography and imaging department of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, intends to activate the camera on Dec. 15.

The project, titled “The 3rd I,” was commissioned by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Bilal plans to broadcast a live stream of images from the camera to monitors at the exhibit in Qatar, scheduled to open Dec. 30.

Last week Bilal launched a website connected to the project. Whether a live feed of pictures from his head-camera will also appear on his website remains unclear. (more)

This Week in Spy News

Real Life

• The Georgian special services arrested 15 people today accused of spying for Russia. (more)

• The highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage was expected to plead guilty to additional charges that he tried to collect money from old contacts in Russia while in prison, a newspaper reported Thursday. (more)

• Freed U.S. hiker Sarah Shourd says she doesn't know if she'll return to Iran to face espionage charges with her two companions still held in prison there. (more)

• Authorities in Norway have launched an investigation into whether the United States conducted illegal surveillance in the Nordic country, the Ministry of Justice told CNN Thursday. (more)

• Officials of the US embassy in Copenhagen may be illegally collecting data about Danish citizens, they find suspicious, the Politiken newspaper reports. (more)

• Taiwan got another spy shock recently when they arrested two men who were spying for China. The shock part came from the fact that one of the men, Lo Chi Cheng was an army colonel. The other was an unnamed Taiwanese businessman who had business in China and spied on China. Then came another shock. The other guy was really a double agent, who had recruited the colonel, who obtained classified information that was then delivered to China. (more)

• Northrop Grumman’s ginormous experimental spying blimp is progressing rapidly... The Army awarded Northrop a $517 million contract in June to develop a trio of unmanned, seven-story, football-field sized mega-blimps called Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicles. If successful, the blimp will stay in the air for up to three weeks at a time, using 2500 pounds’ worth of “sensors, antennas, data links and signals intelligence equipment” to capture still and video images of civilians and adversaries below and send the pictures to troops’ bases. (more)

Art Imitates Real Life

• Though based on a true story with a well-known outcome, Doug Liman's "Fair Game" is as suspenseful as any fictional thriller -- and considerably more tragic. Based-in-truth thriller about CIA spy Valerie Plame. With Naomi Watts, Sean Penn. Director: Doug Liman (1:44). PG-13: Language. At area theaters. (more) (trailer)

• NBC is scrapping J.J. Abrams' spy series "Undercovers..." ...middling reviews and declining ratings made the show increasingly destined for the chopping block. Wednesday night's airing delivered only 5.8 million viewers. Three more episodes will air in the coming weeks. (more)

• Like Aaron Eckhart? Spy dramas? Then perhaps you'll like THE EXPATRIATE. Former Bat villain Aaron Eckhart (THE RUM DIARY, RABBIT HOLE) has been cast as an ex-CIA agent in the spy drama from German director Philipp Stölzl (NORTH FACE, BABY) and newcomer scribe A.E. Amel. xists, his coworkers are gone, and his assistant is really a trained operative out to kill him. Production begins next year Belgium and Montreal. (more)

Duckman Was Here

via http://www.coolpicturegallery.net

Reykjavik's Gargoyle SpyCam

Seen during my travels in Iceland this week...

Gargoyle watches the watchers.



Who says Vikings don't have a sense of humor?

Satellite Spy Photos Reveal History

“Spying on the Past: Declassified Satellite Images and Archaeology,’’ runs at Harvard’s Peabody Museum through Jan. 2.

Using declassified U.S. government spy satellite and aerial images, Harvard student archaeologists explore sites in Northern Mesopotamia and South America. These images are both visually arresting and potent archaeological tools. Four case studies in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Peru reveal complex early cities, extensive trackways, intricate irrigation canals and even traces of nomadic journeys. (more)

The under surveillance comics...

Click here.

3 Graphic Arts Spy Techniques

If you use Photoshop or Illustrator you can send secret messages...
"You’re mission, if you choose to accept, is to learn how to smuggle secret information out of a building using Illustrator, encrypt a simple message using Photoshop and send a yes/no type of answer to a network of spies using a picture without any direct interaction. Enjoy!" (more)

What Does a Spy Look Like?

"In the world of espionage, an umbrella is a pistol, a pen a microphone and that quiet kid at Starbucks a KGB informant. Nothing is what it seems. Inviting the public to look through the eyes of a spy and question the seemingly normal world around them, Red Tettemer created a provocative piece of interactive media. As pedestrians pass the unit, it detects their motion and transforms the clean-cut gentleman into three elaborate disguises: a longhaired drifter, an Indian woman and a well-aged senior citizen." Visit the International Spy Musuem (more)