The Institute for Applied Autonomy was an
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
group of anonymous artists known for employing technology in protest. The group focused on dissemination of knowledge,
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
, and methods of
self-determination
The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
through artistic expression and application of military-like technology to the topics of
Criminal Mischief,
decentralized system
A decentralised system in systems theory is a system in which lower level components operate on local information to accomplish global goals. The global pattern of behaviour is an emergent property of dynamical mechanisms that act upon local com ...
s and individual autonomy.
History
The Institute for Applied Autonomy was founded in 1998 as an informal research collective around the central theme of contestational robotics.
Its Mission statement was to "study the forces and structures which affect self-determination and to provide technologies which extend the autonomy of human activists."
Projects
One of its better known initiatives was
i-See, a decentralized
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
map distribution software containing user-generated data including positioning of
surveillance cameras in
New York City, as well as several other international city centers, in protest of privacy violations on the general public.
In 2003 they took part in the Cartographic Congress organised by the
University of Openess in London
Their project
TXTMob, a registration system for
cell phones to allow protest groups rapid, anonymous communication, was used during the
2004 Republican National Convention
The 2004 Republican National Convention took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The convention is one of a series of historic quadrennial meetings at which the Republican candidates fo ...
.
TXTMob allowed users to subscribe to groups of like-minded persons via a web interface. Once subscribed, messages sent to the group would be passed from the web to the group members' cell phones.
In February 2008, the New York City Law Department issued a subpoena directed to the programmer of TXTMob, asking him to reveal users of the service and contents of messages sent during the convention.
[Moynihan, Colin. (March 30, 2008)]
City Subpoenas Creator of Text Messaging Code
'' The New York Times''. Accessed April 9, 2008.
Other IAA projects included the
Graffiti writer and Terminal air.
All IAA artwork has been
copylefted, with permission for use as long as it is attributed.
References
{{reflist
External links
Internet Archive record of the official Applied Autonomy website– (The original site is no longer active)
Anarchist organizations in the United States