GOOD NEIGHBOURS is a social design project weaving together live performance, technology and placemaking.
Intimate Surveillance
Our aim is to spark conversations about safety and inclusion in neighbourhoods.
The project addresses a key problem in cities: social profiling that is being normalised by communities and enabled by domestic surveillance technologies. At the heart of this issue is a global explosion of commercial surveillance tools including platforms like Nextdoor and WhatsApp; smart doorbell cameras such as Ring and Nest; and automotive surveillance tools like the Tesla-cam. In general, domestic surveillance threatens social cohesion in neighbourhoods. If left unchecked, citizen-led surveillance can easily escalate from fear and paranoia into rampant civic policing and vigilantism in neighbourhoods. GOOD NEIGHBOURS is motivated by one key design speculation: Can neighbourhood surveillance networks be reimagined as networks of trust and inclusion?
