Future Movement Future REJECTED / Bruno Moreschi and Gabriel Pereira
In a not too distant future, an anonymous researcher and their team applied for funding to develop their newest invention: a new algorithmic model for smart cameras which would allow an analysis of the movement of cars at a previously unheard-of scale. This system was said to enable new forms of predictive capabilities to emerge: the algorithm would be able to, for example, predict the route drivers wanted to take but had not yet taken – including, for example, their occult inner desires for getting away with a secret lover. A panel of academic reviewers from three different universities audited and reviewed the proposed system. All that is left are segments of the video report resulting from this meeting, which became an urban legend among technology researchers. The short film “Future Movement Future – REJECTED” is the story of a dystopian surveillance future that was barred by institutional refusal. Rather than heeding to the imperatives of smartification, the uncontrolled expansion of smartness in our lives, the reviewers said 'no'. Their actions importantly remind us about how total surveillance, the “almighty algorithmic eye,” may end up seeing-predicting much less than imagining-dreaming. This project is part of a recent publication in Surveillance & Society Journal: https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/15126.
Bios: Bruno Moreschi is a researcher and multidisciplinary artist. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAUUSP), PhD in Arts at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), with a Capes scholarship, and exchange at the University of Arts of Helsinki (Kuva Art Academy), Finland, via CIMO Fellowship. His investigations are related to the deconstruction of systems and the decoding of social practices in the fields of arts, museums, visual culture and technologies. Projects recognized by ZKM, Van Abbemuseum, 33rd Bienal de São Paulo, Rumos Award, Funarte, Fapesp, University of Cambridge, and CAD+SR. Gabriel Pereira is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK), funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark International Postdoc grant. His research focuses on critical studies of data, algorithms, and digital infrastructures, particularly those of computer vision. Projects with Gabriel have been exhibited in venues such as the 33rd Sao Paulo Art Biennial, the Van Abbemuseum, IDFA DocLab, and Itaú Cultural. He is a Researcher in Residence at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (CAD+SR). https://www.gabrielpereira.net/.
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