The OFF Pocket claims to block all signals so that a cell phone can't be tracked. (Click Image To Enlarge)
ARTISTS BEHIND A LINE OF ANTI-DRONE STEALTH WEAR ARE OPENING FOR BUSINESS.
Artist Adam Harvey has been working with the idea of anti-surveillance for years, creating, for instance, a handbag that thwarts paparazzi with a flash of its own, a series of portraits that fool face-recognition technologies with blocks of makeup and obtrusive hairstyles, and a line of “stealth wear” designed to camouflage its wearers from drones.
A handbag that thwarts paparazzi with a flash of its own. When triggered by a flashing camera, the anti-paparazzi clutch sets off a photo-ruining flash of its own. (Click Image To Enlarge)
The anti-drone scarf will be sold with other projects in Harvey's online store. (Click Image To Enlarge)
In a project called 'CV Dazzle,' Harvey used makeup and hairstyles to confuse face-recognition technology. (Click Image To Enlarge)
But only recently did his projects begin to seem as marketable as they are provocative.
His latest invention, a collaboration with performance wear designer Johanna Bloomfield called “OFF pocket,” is an envelope for cell phones that supposedly blocks all cellular, Wi-Fi, and GPS signals. More than 650 Kickstarter backers have contributed $56,447 to see it be manufactured en mass.
The project may not have generated as much interest before the NSA’s mass electronic surveillance program was revealed to the public earlier this year. Harvey says.
“In the first few years after 9-11, talking about privacy was nearly taboo. Its relevancy was buried in jingoism. Now, privacy is the topic du jour at cafés. Having double identities brings you cache. And a modest amount of paranoia is considered healthy.”
In the wake of OFF Pocket’s success, Harvey is planning to launch an online store called PRCVM (short for “privacy mode”) on December 1. The store will sell the OFF Pocket and other items created for a collaboration with the New Museum store called “the Privacy gift shop.” Some other products from that collection include an “I Love New York” T-shirt that can’t be read by machines ($40), a copper wallet insert that blocks credit cards from RFID scanners ($25), and an anti-Drone scarf ($450).
Harvey says of the camouflage scarf, "I see it more as a tuxedo--which I don’t wear either, very often--but it’s a piece that could be worn if you ever needed to wear it. And it’s available." (Click Image To Enlarge)
The anti-drone scarf demonstrates its camouflaging properties that make the wearer virtually invisible to drones (Click Image To Enlarge)
Many of these projects started without commercial intentions. Before developing the OFF Pocket, for instance, Harvey modified a pair of his own pants with a signalproof pocket and wore them around. The interest those privacy pants generated led him to look at the idea from a product design perspective. Other products, like the anti-drone scarf, remain more art than product. That project's website explains.
"Conceptually, these garments align themselves with the rationale behind the traditional hijab and burqa: to act as 'the veil which separates man or the world from God,' replacing God with drone."
The point of selling the scarf, Harvey says, is partly to raise awareness about privacy issues so that other designers, artists and thinkers can approach them another way.
Harvey's line of anti-drone war masks the wearer's thermal imprint by reflecting heat. (Click Image To Enlarge)
"Conceptually, these garments align themselves with the rationale behind the traditional hijab and burqa: to act as the 'veil which separates man or the world from God,' replacing God with drone," that projects website says. (Click Image To Enlarge)
The anti-drone burqa demonstrates its camouflaging properties which make the wearer virtually invisible to drones. (Click Image To Enlarge)
One already has--but with a very different philosophy. Called HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp, the company makes a fabric it claims can make soldiers completely invisible. It is careful to not sell its full-fledged stealth wear to civilians. Its designer told The Guardian,
"The only people who really don't need to be seen are the ones who are doing something wrong out there."
Harvey, on the other hand, sees his product as a way to explore offsetting military technologies like drones as they inevitably enter everyday life. He says.
“I see it more as a tuxedo--which I don’t wear either, very often--but it’s a piece that could be worn if you ever needed to wear it. And it’s available.”
COMMENTARY: I totally agree with Adam Harvey that these camouflaging products must not be sold to criminals, jihadists and terrorists. If you ask me, this is a no-brainer. These stealth and camouflaging technologies definitely have uses within the U.S. military fighting forces, especially special forces like the U.S. Army Rangers and U.S. Navy Seals, and regular Americans concerned over secret surveillances by our government.
With celebrities and public figures seeking privacy from the paparazzi PCRVM camouflaging apparel and accessories are going to be very popular. And with more Americans concerned that the NSA is conducting secret surveillance of U.S. citizens by tracking their cell phones without regard to their civil rights, under the so-called "authority" of the Patriot Act, the OFF Pocket definitely could fill a real need in the marketplace.
It is absolutely incredible that private citizens now find it necessary to fight back against the unobstructed and illegal surveillance activities of their own government. What kind of country do we live in? Why is President Obama defending the activities of the NSA? We are most definitely not "the land of the free" and a country with "liberty and justice for all."
Courtesy of an article dated September 4, 2013 appearing in Fast Company
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