The social dimensions of security schemes

By Laura Weber

How do you feel when you notice a surveillance camera--comforted that you are safe or fearful that big brother is observing and monitoring your actions?

Surveillance systems, especially in the post-9/11 era, evoke both negative feelings (fear, being controlled, loss of privacy, a sense of discrimination, and cultural or gender insensitivity) and positive feelings (a sense of well-being). Tasoulla Hadjiyanni, assistant professor of interior design, and graduate student Jain Kwon, in partnership with Professor Nikos Papanikolopoulos from the Department of Computer Science, are exploring how to improve the design of electronic surveillance systems that involve cameras. They are engaging and accounting for the sensitivities of those being watched--the social dimension of security schemes.

With digital forms of communication and connection, the people involved in surveillance do not need to be in the same room to be connected; they could even be in different parts of the world, Hadjiyanni explained. "The overall question is, what role can the design fields play in devising security schemes, at a time when social relations are so greatly constructed through digital and electronic means, such as electronic surveillance?" she asked.

While interior design education has long included security as part of its body of knowledge, electronic surveillance systems are often treated as "add-ons, underestimated as equipment hanging from walls or hidden behind security guards' desks," Hadjiyanni said, primarily because they fall under the realm of engineers.

Design solutions show how cameras and video monitors can be used as connecting mechanisms--connecting people to other people and people to their environments. For example, for her undergraduate thesis, interior design student Jane Strom designed an entrance lobby for a new home for the Goldstein Museum of Design. The security cameras for the lobby capture images of visitors and project them onto screens surrounding the reception desk. Computer monitors are then used to secure the building as well as engage the viewer through interactive opportunities to photograph themselves and post their pictures on the screen, share their impressions of the museum collections, and even get to know other patrons and the facility.

Hadjiyanni presented the results of her National Science Foundation-funded research at both the Environmental Design Association's meeting (EDRA) last May and the Interior Design Educator's Council (IDEC) in March. She hopes to publish the present findings in the Journal of Interior Design. In the meantime, she started interviewing architects, interior designers, and engineers to better understand the parameters they consider in designing surveillance schemes.

If security systems are considered in the early stages of the design process, opportunities for "creative and conceptual solutions" arise, Hadjiyanni said. By reconceiving cameras, designers can participate in current debates that set the ground for rethinking what crime, threat, and fear mean. Responding to this challenge, they can help bring the humanity of their constituents back into the picture, balancing the security needs with the potential to make connections.