00:07so our next speaker is Justin McGurk he
00:10is the chief curator of the design
00:11museum in london and he also had a
00:14program for writers and designers at the
00:16design academy in Eindhoven he has a
00:18wonderful piece called honeywell I'm
00:20home in the span reader which will be
00:22giving out to everyone at the end of the
00:23day which I very much encourage you to
00:25read and he's the author of radical
00:28cities which is a kind of tour of Latin
00:29America through its kind of extreme
00:31urban context so he's someone who's
00:33really thoughtful about cities and he
00:35has a way of sort of observing and
00:37describing the pressures that lead
00:38cities to shape environments and the way
00:41that environments also shaped cities and
00:43vice versa so he made us kind of want to
00:46get his take not so much on poverty in
00:48Latin America but on the newly emerging
00:50category of the smart city and you know
00:53thinking a little bit about how the
00:54densities of cities deal with issues
00:57around individual privacy and civil
01:01liberty and all these other things and
01:02to think about how they've done that in
01:04the past and how they might kind of how
01:05we might be able to learn from that in
01:06the future designing in cities or in
01:09other types of experiences like apps and
01:11software as well so please give a warm
01:13welcome to adjusted McGurk
01:21thank you very much Rob thank you for
01:24inviting me as well that was a very
01:27generous introduction so let me lower
01:29expectations immediately and say this is
01:32the first time I'm doing this talk so if
01:36you see me pausing for Thought is
01:37literally because I'm thinking about
01:38what the next thing is I'm supposed to
01:40say or why did I put this slide in this
01:43talk so it's a little raw and rough
01:46around the edges but i think you know
01:47hopefully some of these points will
01:49connect I'm also aware of the irony of
01:52someone like me coming to a conference
01:54like this to talk to an audience like
01:56you about privacy because there's
01:59nothing literally nothing I can tell you
02:00about privacy that you don't know much
02:02more about because privacy being this
02:04you know topic that we associate now
02:06with the digital realm but I thought it
02:09might be interesting to talk about a
02:10different kind of privacy a more kind of
02:14analog privacy that in the language of
02:16your people I'm calling privacy 1.0 and
02:19that means curtains in fact what this
02:24talk is really about is the blurring of
02:27the boundaries between public and
02:29private and how I see that as a
02:32prevalent phenomenon in our current
02:35moment and I'm going to start in the
02:40south of Italy just this is a picture I
02:44took in Bari actually of a lace curtain
02:47and I was thinking about Walter
02:50Benjamin's famous essay about Naples in
02:53which he observed that the city was
02:57essentially porous the architecture was
02:59porous he was talking about the quality
03:01of the stone but he was also talking
03:03about the way that life spills out onto
03:06the street and you know the interior
03:09world spills out into stairways
03:11balconies and that there was a kind of
03:14theater of the street and there was this
03:16constant interplay between inside and
03:18outside so the noises of the outside
03:20coming in the interior life coming out
03:22and that's why he described no balls is
03:26porous and then when i was in bahria i
03:27noticed that everybody uses lace
03:30curtains and we don't really use that
03:32they're an anachronism in the you
03:33hey we don't really use them anymore
03:34maybe in kind of suburban or countryside
03:37communities but in the city no one uses
03:39lace curtains and I realized that the
03:42lace curtain here is a kind of interface
03:43if you like because you know you have to
03:47leave your doors open because it's hot
03:49and to let the air through but you don't
03:50want people kind of peering in but you
03:52want to be able to see out so it's this
03:53interface allowing light a light and air
03:56in but kind of no light out so you can't
04:00see in it's also an image about trust I
04:02think because the doors are open there's
04:04nothing stopping you coming in really
04:05apart from a very diaphanous piece of
04:07fabric so in a way this image is the
04:11metaphor for the whole talk and the
04:14point being that our notion of privacy
04:16has become porous and what I'm going to
04:19or ambiguous if you like and what I'm
04:21going to the point I'm going to get to
04:22is that our notion of the home has
04:25become porous and ambiguous I'm also
04:30going to kind of posit that this lace
04:33curtain is a kind of screen and there
04:37are obviously many different you know
04:38cultural variants on this idea of the
04:40screen this is the Middle Eastern
04:43variant master abaya which is the device
04:45that again keeps light out and lets air
04:49through but also what lets some light in
04:52but you know enough to not so much that
04:55it brings with it heat but it also
04:56screens in the sense of privacy and
04:58there are more fundamentalist versions
05:01of that this is in Beirut is the first
05:03place I really observed the the kind of
05:06more hardline Muslim take on on privacy
05:09and if you like the curtain wall the
05:13curtain wall means something else in
05:14architecture actually means a glass wall
05:16but these are kind of literal curtain
05:19walls slightly war-torn here because
05:21this is darker in Beirut after an
05:25Israeli bombing in 2006 but it's the
05:27first place I observe that it's kind of
05:29the the architectural analog to the full
05:31her job if you like the kind of fully
05:33screened face all of these things I'm
05:37saying our screens what do I mean by
05:40that well I mean very obviously the word
05:44screen originally meant a kind of shield
05:47I mean in the old French s Cole was
05:51literally the fire guard is the thing
05:53you put in front of the fire to stop the
05:54heat burning you and what it becomes
05:57with the invention of the magic lantern
05:59the early projector is the device is
06:04really the surface on which the light
06:06from that fire is projected so we go
06:10from this idea of the screen as a shield
06:12as a protective device keeping away heat
06:15or drafts or whatever to a window quite
06:19literally almost literally a window to
06:22another world with the arrival of cinema
06:23and now the screen is literally a portal
06:27a window into many other worlds it's you
06:32know every one of these squares is a
06:35piece of digital real estate if you like
06:37and when you click on it you're opening
06:39a door into another room okay all of
06:43this very familiar to you what I think
06:47is also interesting is the way that the
06:49screen and the curtain are starting to
06:51come back to meet each other again this
06:53is a new TV launched a couple of months
06:56ago by the by Samsung designed by the
06:59bouroullec brothers which one of the key
07:01elements of the interface is curtain
07:03mode so that you can literally screen
07:05off anything that you don't want to see
07:07like the ads and you know they tested
07:10this on america's got talent because
07:11they felt that's really kind of emotive
07:13imagery we're not sure if we want to see
07:15that you can see the rhythms behind but
07:17you can't see the images so you can kind
07:19of you get a sense when your program
07:20starting again or when the kind of fast
07:23pace ads have stopped there was no neat
07:27place to put this in its kind of an
07:28aside the next slide I'm going to throw
07:31it in here anyway and just to make a
07:33very obvious point about public space
07:35public space especially in a city like
07:37London is increasingly ambiguous so this
07:42is this is what looks like a
07:43quintessential public space it's granary
07:45square outside the central saint martins
07:47art school in Kings Cross you know those
07:50kids playing and everything that's
07:51fountains it's a public space except
07:53it's a private space it's owned by the
07:55developers who regenerated Kings Cross
07:57and if you ever really tested those
08:01behaving in a certain way you would
08:02discover that it's a private space and
08:04similarly this this is more london in
08:09london bridge near where i work at the
08:11design museum this looks like a public
08:14space but it's actually a private space
08:16owned by the developers so if you're
08:18considered an undesirable or if you
08:20behave in a kind of socially
08:21unacceptable way you'll be very rapidly
08:23removed from this space and I'm starting
08:26to think that actually these fountains
08:27are dead giveaway for for this kind of
08:31space so watch out for those now the
08:37only point I'm making is that
08:38increasingly these zones this question
08:42of what is public and what is private is
08:44becoming more and more ambiguous more
08:46and more porous but I'm going to go into
08:48a little bit of history there is a
08:51morality to exposure I'm going to argue
08:53that there's a morality to openness to
08:55transparency there's a morality to glass
08:58essentially this is Amsterdam and I was
09:05briefly for a brief moment totally
09:07obsessed with the question of why
09:08windows in Holland are bigger than
09:10windows in England this is something
09:13I've observed many many times over the
09:14years and I was convinced at some point
09:16it must have something to do with our
09:18notions of privacy in fact when I looked
09:21into it it was or or attitude to light
09:23but in fact when I looked into it it was
09:26very specific it's because a lot of
09:28Holland is reclaimed land land reclaimed
09:31at great expense so property values are
09:33very high and you know it meant they had
09:37to build tall narrow buildings very deep
09:39so they'd put a lot of light they put a
09:42lot of windows on the front facade you
09:44can see there on the in the middle row a
09:46classic Amsterdam building and that was
09:49to get that was to allow the light to
09:51penetrate these deep narrow buildings
09:53and it's the it's the quintessence of
09:54Dutch old master painting you know
09:56Vermeer all of that light is represented
09:59there I was wondering whether it was to
10:01do with our attitudes to privacy whether
10:03actually the English are really we're
10:05really kind of with our small mean
10:06windows we have a current we're very
10:08protective of our privacy and the Ducks
10:10are more liberal and maybe you know but
10:12that's not true and then I wondered
10:14is it because because of the big windows
10:18that the Ducks are more liberal I'm also
10:20i have nothing to prove that but the
10:23with this slide I warned you not to
10:25Google Amsterdam windows when you when
10:28you're at work because you'll get a page
10:30like this and you know there is
10:35something about the liberalism of the
10:37Dutch with their you know legalized
10:39prostitution and so on that made me
10:41think there's some connection here with
10:42Windows but I've never substantiated it
10:43and it's not just the Dutch I mean you
10:46know this is New York this is the the
10:48standard hotel I can see some of the
10:52some of the arrangement of my pictures
10:54in these in these slides is not quite
10:56how they were originally so forgive me
10:58but do does anyone remember this story
11:02fairly recently when people apparently
11:05complaining well the Daily News for
11:06supporting that people were complaining
11:08about people exposing themselves in the
11:10standard hotel I thought it was really
11:12interesting because the standard hotel
11:14is the classic in the mold of a classic
11:17modernist building with a transparent
11:19curtain wall like a fully glass glazed
11:22facade and even in less liberal cultures
11:25like America you know those that sense
11:26that you want to seize that opportunity
11:28to expose yourself if you can briefly or
11:32maybe you're just doing it unawares
11:33because it's a beautiful view and you're
11:34standing there naked checking the
11:36messages on your phone and you don't
11:38realize that you're exposing yourself to
11:40the world although this lady definitely
11:43knows what she's doing because she's
11:44covered her head with a paper bag so
11:46she's exposing herself and hiding
11:48herself at the same time she's both
11:51public and private now when I say
11:54there's a morality to glass I mean what
11:56I mean by that is really the history of
11:57modernist architecture the glass
12:01building the fully glazed building
12:03starts here in 1921 with a drawing by
12:05mies van der rohe for a glass tower on
12:08friedrichstrasse Oh in Berlin which was
12:10never built but as a symbol in post-war
12:14in post First World War Germany the
12:16glass was emblematic of I guess renewal
12:19and purity and that becomes a trope in
12:23modernism you know there's really this
12:24emphasis on on transparency as a kind of
12:28dition the salutary effects of light and
12:32openness hygiene and you see it in local
12:37buzios UN building which is a kind of
12:39cartesian glass prism of a building
12:42which is both rational and open and
12:45transparent all of these qualities
12:47befitting an institution which is about
12:49promoting world peace and togetherness
12:52in the domestic realm Mises house is
12:57probably the most radical version of
12:59transparency at that time you know
13:02transparency that makes the house
13:04effectively disappear revealing the
13:06inner life the lives of the people
13:08within it on a kind of screen if you
13:11like and this kind of architecture is is
13:15still I mean it continues today it's
13:16very popular in Japan the idea of
13:18transparency this is a building by su
13:22fujimoto called house na and
13:24interestingly he talks about nesting
13:25these open cubes amongst each other
13:28which is a nice paradox because when you
13:30think of nesting you think of closed
13:32comfortable kind of cozy spaces not
13:34these open exposed slightly
13:36uncomfortable spaces potentially and in
13:41the world of work there was an analogy
13:43with this openness which is the
13:45open-plan office which again begins here
13:48at the Johnson wax company headquarters
13:51designed by Frank Lloyd Wright really
13:53the largest at that time open-plan
13:57office and that became utterly standard
14:00you know that became the the mode of the
14:03preferred mode of operating in business
14:04at a certain point in time to the point
14:07where it gets taken to its logical
14:08conclusion in places like this the
14:10facebook campus designed by frank gehry
14:14which contains the largest open plan
14:16office in the world now what I'm
14:20wondering is what are the effects of all
14:21this exposure what are the effects of
14:22all that openness which we perceive to
14:24be a good thing well it certainly has an
14:29effect on furniture design quite
14:30noticeably I mean you start to see that
14:32furniture takes the furniture starts to
14:34develop house like qualities this is
14:38again a sofa called alcove by the
14:40relax and it's a sofa that kind of
14:43swallows you up that kind of builds
14:45walls around you so that you have
14:46screens to protect you from all of that
14:48exposure all of that openness all of
14:50that noise so you can have a closed
14:53quiet conversation or you can see it
14:56here in a chair by juergen Bay called
14:59ear chair where a literary one that one
15:01of the head pieces this ear just
15:03projects forward protecting you from all
15:06of that openness in an open-plan office
15:09and creating a kind of closed
15:11comfortable sonic environment and that
15:13the more extreme level you can see it
15:16here in this piece by natural carbon now
15:18where the chair becomes a kind of Cocoon
15:20where you can you can sit fully exposed
15:23or you can just kind of lie inside it
15:25with your feet on the chair and your
15:26your upper body completely cocooned
15:29inside a nice comfy closed space and
15:34what I'm proposing is that we need these
15:37kind of spaces we need to be closed off
15:40occasionally we need to be we need to be
15:42kind of sequestered in a little dark
15:44corner sometimes and and sometimes we do
15:47it with invisible walls by putting on
15:50noise cancelling headphones I was also
15:52briefly obsessed with these because it's
15:54just this idea that you can that you
15:55have kind of sonic antimatter
15:57counteracting you know the positive
16:00sound waves coming from around the room
16:02I mean I use these and they became kind
16:04of integral to my in my invisible war
16:07link system and then you start to see
16:11the reemergence of the screen as as a
16:14device again abril XP seem to be very
16:17much on the button with this privacy
16:20issue they've created a screen that you
16:22can clip together out of well many many
16:27modular little parts called algae and
16:29create these kind of very organic screen
16:31like I never thought they were
16:32particularly functional but they're very
16:34pretty so that is kind of in a way the
16:39the interior that the furniture
16:42designers response to an overload of
16:43openness but that that trope of
16:48transparency doesn't continue in the
16:50same vein I mean when post-modernism
16:52arrives that kind of clear glass
16:54the mirrored glass and it's no
16:56coincidence this starts to happen around
16:58the time that capitalism becomes
17:00neoliberal capitalism a much murkier
17:02finance related business than the kind
17:05of more trading form of capitalism that
17:07happens before and this is the
17:09emblematic building according to
17:12Frederick Jameson this is the kind of
17:13emblem of post-modernism it's the hotel
17:15Bonaventure in LA which far from being
17:20open and transparent is mirrored it
17:23reflects the city it and in a way you
17:25can see how it's positioned there up on
17:27a plinth no access from the street it's
17:30very introspective it's not outward
17:32looking is very inward looking a whole
17:34building looks inward at a giant atrium
17:36in the core of these four towers so in a
17:39way it's a building protecting itself
17:41defending itself against the city like a
17:43castle rejecting rejecting the buildings
17:46around it so that's I'm making the point
17:52that that's what happens to architecture
17:54around the time of kind of finance
17:56capitalism's emergence and then now
17:59today in an era when we really value and
18:02we're really pushing openness and
18:04transparency in in our digital relations
18:06with each other and with organizations
18:08and the government it's interesting to
18:10me or maybe just a little bit ironic
18:12that the architecture that that
18:14generates is actually totally closed so
18:18this is a server farm and it's the most
18:20inscrutable impervious building you
18:23could possibly imagine an architecture
18:25for machines not humans an architecture
18:27that requires no windows at all but lots
18:30of water so there is an irony that
18:34somehow openness breeds closeness like
18:37this and inside that building is simply
18:40and this isn't literally inside that
18:42building but it's an example of what's
18:43inside that building simply banks of
18:45servers and this is a still from t-mo
18:49Arnold's film internet machine which is
18:51really in a way an elaborate reminder of
18:53the fact that these air we met affords
18:55we create like the cloud actually have
18:58very physical that they are real
19:00physical places somewhere on the border
19:03of California and Nevada or in Sweden
19:08and those are a few ideas i'm throwing
19:12out there I hope they're kind of
19:15connecting with each other but what I'm
19:17going to bring them together in one
19:18space which is the home because I see
19:21that our idea of home is changing and I
19:24want to start with just one very simple
19:26hypothesis which is that the home is a
19:30sanctuary the home is a kind of retreat
19:35from the world of the public the world
19:37of work and this image i'm showing is
19:40Friedrich easler's endless house from
19:431947 which I'm showing simply because it
19:48looks like a shell and I'm quite
19:52interested in this idea of the home as a
19:54shell of the shelter I'd be really
19:56surprised if the word shell and shelter
19:58don't have the same linguistic route but
20:01I couldn't actually substantiate that
20:04and if you read Gaston Bachelard poetics
20:08of space he goes into great detail
20:10talking about the home is a kind of
20:12intimate space as a kind of shell and he
20:15posits that a human being needs to
20:17withdraw into a quiet corner we need
20:20that and in that respect we're not so
20:22different from animals he talks about
20:24nests and shells and he finds analogue
20:27for those in the home he talks about
20:29wardrobes corners sellers Garrett's all
20:32of these closed darker more intimate
20:35spaces and he says we need intimate
20:37spaces they are very womb-like than
20:39nurturing and so the simple premise here
20:44is that the home our traditional notion
20:46of the home is a kind of sanctuary right
20:49I think that's a fair statement but I
20:50would argue that that's actually
20:51changing but fundamentally our notion of
20:54home is changing and it's changing
20:55partly because of new tools and new
20:58social relations so something like
21:02Airbnb changes the relationship of our
21:06home to the world in other words it
21:09opens it up it makes a domestic space
21:12private or public it makes the
21:14private-public we do it willingly it's
21:17not there's nothing untoward going on
21:19here we we put we expose our into
21:21your worlds to an untold audience and we
21:27do it for a number of reasons that are
21:29over benefit to us we do it because we
21:32need to support ourselves we need to pay
21:35our mortgages we need to pay our rents
21:37you know this is all supplementary
21:39income so one thing one can say is that
21:42the home is a much more productive space
21:45than we used to think of it it's not the
21:48wood place where you go after work it's
21:50a place that is productive all the time
21:52it's producing money it's a tool like
21:56Airbnb and we call it the sharing
21:58economy but it's actually the rental
22:00economy it facilitates a global rentier
22:03class and I've certainly used it and
22:07it's been very useful to me but it is it
22:12is in a way the commodification of
22:13private space and if you live in a city
22:17like London your house is quite
22:19literally productive through financial
22:21value right so property values go up so
22:24fast in London but it's very likely that
22:27your house earns more money every year
22:28than you do and that's simply in my case
22:31it's simply a fact so there is this
22:34notion that the house is becoming a
22:36productive space it's generating value
22:38much more than it used to so when we
22:44think about the changing nature of home
22:46we tend to think about images like this
22:48the house of the future and so on really
22:53we know that our lifestyles are changing
22:55but we also know that architects are not
22:57necessarily keeping pace with those
23:00changes in the 1950s the house of the
23:03future looked like this this is the the
23:05Alison Peter Smith sins version of the
23:08house of the future and it was you know
23:11the table rises up out of the floor it's
23:14a very mechanized and stylized vision of
23:17the future with funny outfits and it's
23:20all very you know radical in a way and
23:23quaint at the same time looking back but
23:26actually when we think about the future
23:27now we think about things like the smart
23:29home right this is the term that
23:31everybody's using the smart home the
23:34and one things what is the manifestation
23:36of that what does it look like well when
23:38you look at Time magazine what does it
23:39put on the front cover really the most
23:42prosaic looking house you can possibly
23:44imagine okay it's got a climbing wall
23:46attached to the back of it which is
23:48rather unusual otherwise it couldn't be
23:50more prosaic unambitious it's like a
23:54standard kind of suburban market product
23:57so we know that our lifestyles are
24:00changing we know that we're more nomadic
24:01than we've ever been we try and
24:03accumulate less stuff and less furniture
24:05because we know we have to move a lot we
24:07know that our lifestyles are changing we
24:08work from her more but architecture
24:11hasn't offered us a new vision of what
24:13that looks like in a way architectures
24:15given up its dreams of imagining how we
24:19might live and technology is rushing
24:23into that void I would argue that
24:25actually the new visions are coming from
24:27the product companies with their
24:30Internet of Things software or at least
24:32this is the this is what we're being
24:34pitched with you know smart fridges that
24:37can you know as the saying goes you know
24:42if you run out of milk it can order it
24:43for you and you know it can let you know
24:46that you need to do the shopping and all
24:48of these very apparently useful things
24:51the makers of these devices haven't yet
24:55successfully sold us on that vision of
24:57the future because we can't quite figure
24:59out how it's useful to us yet but we
25:01know it's coming because we know it's
25:02very useful to them because obviously
25:05the main point about smart devices in
25:09the home whether it's fridges or
25:11toasters whatever it is is that their
25:13data collection devices there's also the
25:16fact that these homes in our home is
25:18porous in the sense because these things
25:20get hacked and there was an incident
25:22very recently when hackers extracted
25:26people's gmail accounts their Gmail
25:28login details from from this particular
25:30samsung fridge just to prove how weak
25:34the security systems were around these
25:36devices so you know experts conjure up
25:39this cycle cyber security nightmare of
25:41bot armies botnet armies using smart
25:44toasters to launch denial of service
25:47for me that's not the nature of the
25:49problem actually that's just like we you
25:52know burglary is as old as man kind and
25:55this is just another form of burglary
25:57that's not really the nature of the
25:58change in relationship to the home the
26:00changing relationship to the home is
26:02that the home is now a data collection
26:04node so again it's this idea that the
26:06home is a productive space we're
26:08producing value we're producing money
26:10we're producing images for the public
26:12we're producing data most importantly
26:15and the and the kind of posted poster
26:18product of that phenomenon is the nest
26:22home thermostat again it's called nest I
26:25think Gaston Bachelard would be very
26:27amused with this idea that it's called
26:29nest because if you think about it what
26:31is the nest if not the most nurturing
26:33cozy protective space one can imagine in
26:36fact what the nest thermostat is is a
26:39portal to the company which collects all
26:42the data and so on so there's a slight
26:43irony there but you know we know that by
26:462020 there'll be 50 billion Wi-Fi
26:48connected devices and in our homes and
26:51many of those things will be collecting
26:53data of some kind or another we don't
26:55fully necessarily understand what that
26:56data is how it can be used maybe it's
26:59not a bad thing but the point is that
27:03the home is becoming a kind of data
27:05factory and that seems to be unavoidable
27:07because it's just it's it's been written
27:10into the business plan if you like so
27:12we're switching from this position of
27:14the modernist position of the home which
27:17look Corbusier describes here as as
27:20practical as a typewriter remember this
27:24is the architect who described the home
27:26as a machine for living so that very
27:29kind of progress in a way yeah
27:33positivist view of this techno future
27:36where everything is going to be really
27:37efficient it has been parodied in film
27:41in Jacques Tati zmanim most famously you
27:45know miss your culo wandering around
27:46doesn't understand how all these all mod
27:49cons work and it's all kind of the
27:51future home is is really a rich space
27:54for farce and for parody and for comedy
27:57but there's also also
28:00always a dark side to that and the
28:03equivalent of the core business comment
28:05now comes from Ram cool house who wrote
28:08fairly recently very soon your house
28:10will betray you so there's a slight
28:12switch this idea that technology serving
28:14us it's going to you know make life more
28:16efficient to it's going to betray us and
28:19when Ram interviewed Tony Fadell the CEO
28:23of nest at the venice biennale last year
28:26it was interesting you know he was
28:27trying to tease out the potential
28:29controversy here understandably and he
28:32was saying you know it's a fine line
28:33between your collecting our data to
28:36learn from us to help us save energy
28:37which is a very noble and proper thing
28:40to do but at what point do you get to
28:43the stage where you say actually you've
28:45used enough energy today mr. cool house
28:48and it's time for you to go to bed and
28:49the thing switches your lights off and
28:51that again that's a slightly farcical
28:53position but you know you do wonder how
28:56these progressions happen they happen
28:57very kind of incrementally and subtly
28:59until we get used to them as you know as
29:01they happen and the more farcical
29:06position perhaps is this i mean the the
29:08scene from to Stanley Kubrick's 2001
29:11I'll let you read that for a second I
29:17think you know what the problem is just
29:19as well as I do it's amazing how much
29:21house I all-seeing eye looks just like
29:24the nest to me and we really I'd never
29:27noticed it until I made this slide but
29:31we get here too I don't want to be too
29:35this is not you know I'm being humorous
29:37I'm not being totally dystopian here but
29:39there is there is a kind of two
29:42different visions here of the dystopia
29:44one is the Orwellian one which is the
29:47kind of totalitarian state Big Brother
29:49watching you etc etc and then there's
29:52Aldous Huxley's version which is much
29:54more about the efficiency doctrine and
29:56in a letter that Aldous Huxley wrote to
29:59all well he he said to all actually
30:02you're wrong I think your vision of the
30:04future is not it's not how it's going to
30:05work it's not about some fascist jack
30:07boot stamping in your face every day and
30:10watching you all the time it's really
30:11much more subtle than that he said he
30:13said basically we're going to win
30:14we're going to bring it on ourselves
30:15we're going to want this to happen and
30:18he says the lust for power can be just
30:20as completely satisfied by suggesting
30:23people into loving their servitude as by
30:26flogging and kicking them into obedience
30:28the change will be brought about as a
30:30result of a felt need for increased
30:33efficiency so will be sold this vision
30:35of efficiency and will want it and
30:37gradually will get used to the trade the
30:40trade-offs that come with that
30:41efficiency which is that we pay for
30:43everything with our data what happens
30:45for the down the line when we when we
30:47know data is the new currency and in
30:50that light you know in with that in mind
30:52this idea that we we surveil ourselves
30:56is obviously already here this is
30:59another nest product the Dropcam
31:02actually I'm totally out of date I was
31:04just I saw a poster on the street and
31:06old Street this morning which is a kind
31:08of miniature tiny version of this that
31:10you just stick on a wall which if any of
31:12you have read Dave Eggers the circle
31:14which probably a lot of you have because
31:17it's it's about this kind of world it's
31:21you know Eggers is parodying this
31:23radical transparency he's saying we get
31:26to a point where the ambition is to put
31:28a camera to cover the world with camera
31:30so that you can see everything at any
31:33any place at any time which is an
31:35amazing kind of holistic vision of the
31:37world and he really mocks it's a
31:39brilliant satire because he gets to the
31:41point where you know every politician
31:43has to wear a camera around that their
31:45next 24 hours a day and the ones that
31:47don't are bringing suspicion on
31:49themselves that why won't you wear a
31:50camera what is it what is it that you've
31:52got that you've got to hide effectively
31:55so we start off by talking about
31:58womb-like spaces this idea of the home
32:01as a shelter as a nest as a shell from
32:06the womb to what McLuhan called womb to
32:09tomb surveillance which is the which
32:12seems to be where we're heading and I'm
32:14not saying we shouldn't be comfortable
32:17with that I'm just saying it seems to be
32:19where we're heading and again I didn't
32:21have a neat place to slop this soon but
32:23i'm going to slot it in anyway just to
32:25make a slight aside which is that this
32:28first world problem this is a rug woven
32:31in Afghanistan depicting drones so I
32:35like this idea that somehow the devices
32:38that are monitoring them enter the
32:41domestic space as decoration finally I'm
32:46going to close with a few words about
32:48privacy least Hannah Arendt's take on
32:52privacy so in her book the human
32:56condition she spends a lot of time
32:57talking about the private and the public
32:59and it's I found it quite useful stuff
33:01and she talks about the Greek note the
33:05ancient Greek notion of home of the home
33:07and she talked about boycotts which is
33:09the household the greek word for a
33:11household and all course is the root of
33:13the word economy as many of you probably
33:15know and because running the economy is
33:19like running a big household right it's
33:21kind of a budget list and the ancient
33:25Greek notion of privacy according to
33:27errant was no you know privacy was not a
33:31particularly noble or exciting thing no
33:34one you know it was actually you know
33:36private comes from the same word is
33:38deprived it was a slightly deprived
33:40existence the world of home was the
33:42world of chores and work and it's the
33:45world were of slaves and she says a man
33:48who lived only a private life who like
33:51the slave was not permitted to enter the
33:52public realm was not fully human in
33:55other words that the noble life for the
33:56ancient Greeks was the public life it
33:58was you know debating in the Agora it
34:01was contributing to the life of the
34:02polis or the city you know public man
34:06was the man that they admired private
34:09man was a man you know dealing with
34:11slaves and chores and and just the
34:14necessity the bare necessities of life
34:15it was ignoble stuff but that changes
34:20later on she says it's only later that
34:23the home becomes the only reliable
34:26hiding place from the common public
34:28world not only from everything that goes
34:30on in it but also from it's very
34:31publicity from being seen and being
34:34heard this is the kind of evolution of
34:36the idea of the home as a shelter as a
34:38shell and at that point we start to
34:42our privacy she says a life spent
34:44entirely in public in the presence of
34:47others becomes as we would say shallow
34:49so I'm wondering where are we now on
34:51that scale we still value our privacy we
34:55still see our homes to some degree as
34:57nests as shells as protective
34:59sanctuaries at the same time we're
35:02exposing them more and more we're
35:04putting them on on the web where
35:06divulging are you know our lifestyles
35:11and we do all of this out of pleasure
35:13and enjoyment we do it on Instagram to
35:15it's not just about Airbnb you know we
35:17post pictures of our avocado on toast on
35:19Facebook whatever we are we're sharing
35:21our lives with each other we're being
35:23quite were relatively open with each
35:25other but I wonder are we returning in a
35:28way to that greek notion of the home as
35:32a productive space at a place of work a
35:36place that you know of yeah production
35:42for that producing data producing value
35:44or is are we making the home more of a
35:47public space I mean this is really an
35:49open question as I said I'm thinking
35:51about this stuff for the first time
35:53myself but I do definitely see some kind
35:55of shift happening there is a kind of
35:57ambiguity now about what is private and
35:59what is public what is home what is the
36:01private space within the home and what
36:03is the space that we open up to the
36:05online community and let strangers in
36:07and and you know come and stay with us
36:09and all of that many of which has very
36:11positive side effects some of which are
36:15possibly unknown but certainly they're
36:17shifting our attitude to what is what is
36:19home what's not home what's public
36:22what's private and just very quickly
36:27there are of course responses to to
36:32these kind of devices to smart
36:34technology this is an old one actually
36:35from 2001 by done and raby which returns
36:39to the idea of the screen as a shield in
36:41a way this is this is the kind of techno
36:44version of that fire guard I was talking
36:47about earlier and it's called the
36:48electromagnetic draught excluder and
36:50it's just a placebo device they gave to
36:54people to test if they felt more
36:56or hiding from the radiation coming off
36:59their aight you know the whatever it is
37:02electromagnetic radiation coming off
37:04their devices whether they felt more
37:07protected hiding behind this thing and
37:10there are other versions of it this is
37:12created by my friends space caviar it's
37:15called Ram house Ram meaning
37:18radar-absorbent material it's basically
37:20a Faraday cage of a home where when you
37:23go in it's total but its total digital
37:25black out there are no signals coming in
37:26or going out and that is a very extreme
37:29notion of privacy if you like it's that
37:31kind of literal curtain to run a cross
37:33between you and the outside world and
37:36now we're starting to design privacy
37:39into our products with things like this
37:42the black phone and encrypted phone so
37:44there's this sense do you remember
37:46virtud remember when mobile phones were
37:48all like not all but you remember when
37:50this particular kind of mobile phone was
37:51all like fancy leather and diamonds and
37:54I mean that was the luxury idea of the
37:56mobile phone well now privacy is the new
37:59luxury in a way this is the kind of tool
38:02for those who want to opt out of the
38:03digital economy it's Walden's pond for
38:06the 21st century is it just for people
38:09with something to hide that would be
38:11government's response there would be a
38:12lot of companies response why it's like
38:17the de vergas argument if the politician
38:18doesn't want to wear the camera around
38:19the neck why does that mean they don't
38:21they have something to hide so
38:23government's frown on something like
38:24this but one could argue that actually
38:27rather than just facilitating criminal
38:29behavior or something like this is
38:31actually a way of reasserting
38:32citizenship that it's the right of the
38:35citizen to have their data protected to
38:37not have to share everything with with
38:39companies and with government we know
38:41that governments are snooping on us so
38:43this is the logical conclusion it's a
38:48strange place to end this talk actually
38:50but I'm going to end it there because
38:51this is unrehearsed and I didn't really
38:54think about how to end it so thanks
