Low Definition Control - Malfunctions #0 (2011)

In the name of safety, the most banal movements in public spaces are being watched. Before a wide screen of strikingly captivating black-and-white images of daily scenes, we are forced to reflect on control vs privacy, technology vs humanity.
Images dominate our lives: from ultrasounds in the womb that let us look at an unborn baby, via the panopticum of surveillance cameras to predictions of the future based on radar images. By only showing these images, supported by a voiceover, Low Definition Control - Malfunctions #0 poses questions about the certainties suggested by this perception. Automated pattern analysis of images in public space will increasingly label everything out of the ordinary as suspicious. Someone who stands still too long to eat a sandwich where other people walk on will be noticed. In this way, public space is becoming a risky place.
That grand words about risk prevention and security have turned into ‘political superglue’ prompted Michael Palm to make this reflection about the consequences of automating our perception. What if people withdraw entirely from the automatic-control industry because they can’t process the data fast enough? And what if only the computers are left - who will then decide about security and risks?