It doesn't take Foucault to see we're living in a surveillance culture. Ever since 9/11 big brother's been watching and encouraging us to spy on each other -- so much so that we sometimes miss really important stuff, like what the government's getting up to. But populations can, and do, subvert the panopticon by appropriating the tools of surveillance, redeploying them in ways that restore power to the populace. The Republican National Convention smashes into New York at the end of the month, and folks from Pursue the Pulse Media Arts Collective (Mark Argo, Dan Melinger, Shawn Van Every, Ahmi Wolf, and Ophra Wolf) have a special surprise to welcome delegates. The CoDeck is built around a late-70's Sears Betavision videocassette recorder refurbished for Linux. The platform consists of a web server, a video playback system, and a video capture system 'effectively a private TV channel' where people can submit self-made videos and view others' submissions, reacting and responding to each other's takes on the political clime in an open, street-based dialectic. Right now you can submit online, but from August 23 on, you RNC in-person spectators hit alt.coffee (139 Avenue A) to do your own spin doctoring. - Peggy MacKinnon