Smile! You Are Out Of Camera

Online installation in the program of Getxophoto 2020 International Image Festival, curated by Jon Uriarte.

An installation by the Estampa collective to reflect on control systems and the use of our image through the proliferation of security cameras.

Smile! You are out of Camera uses a computer vision system, programmed for object identification, to analyze a live video feed coming from a camera on the streets of Getxo. This neural network constantly processes the feed and hides moving objects under a white square so that any people, vehicles or animals that are moving in front of the webcam at that moment will automatically disappear.

The proliferation of security cameras has generated a constant, immense register that needs to be analyzed, identified and classified, but due to the enormous volume these tasks are impossible for humans and have been delegated to machines; automatic systems find meaning in the images, identifying individuals on the street, in shopping centres or in airports. In a hypervisual world, digital invisibility has become a privilege that few people have, forcing institutions like the European Union to recognize the right to be forgotten on the Internet. The Estampa group aims to subvert the use of control and surveillance tools of governments and large technological corporations, in order to allow the free movement of citizens.