Question: Could you tell us how Carnivore came up, where did you start and at what stage is the project now?
Answer (0'44'')
Question: Carnivore is based on the original FBI software, is the system also still similar to the original one? Could you explain to us how you got the programming and what changes you made to it?
Answer (0'47'')
Question: Have you ever had any illegal trouble with the FBI because of this project?
Answer (1'07'')
Question: What do you think about the artistic projects developed through the Carnivore connection? Do you think these art works are like the visualization of your work?
Answer (0'16'')
Question: As we know, you once worked as editor at Rhizome, are you still in touch with Rhizome? Are you working or collaborating on a similar project?
Answer (0'13'')
Question: Some of your other projects have also focused on visualization of information as we can see in StarryNight. Do you also find some of this perspective in the Carnivore project?
Answer (0'21'')
Carnivore is a software project based on the FBI surveillance software of the same name and created by the software collective RSG (Radical Software Group). Alex Galloway, one of the founding members of this collective tells us about the concept and the purpose that this project embraces. RSG made a version of FBI Carnivore also for carrying out surveillance on people, but they have a different perspective of it. Galloway tells us how they think surveillance is normally understood in society and the consequences of that when people's worries are reverting on to their own invasion of privacy.
Galloway worked for six years as former d irector of Content & Technology at the online platform for new media art, Rhizome.org. He is currently teaching digital media at New York University.
He is the author of Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization (MIT Press, 2004) and Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 2006).
Interviewed by Alba Colombo (Berlinale), and Pau Alsina, Professor of Humanities Studies (UOC), at Ars Electronica 2002.
surveillance, FBI, software, privacy
Alex Galloway homepage
Carnivore web site
Carnivore at Ars Electronica 2002
