r/triphop • u/nonchalantqt • 13h ago
Massive Attack Live Audience Facial Recognition
The tags say things like “forum moderator”, “weapons specialist”, “hacker”, “doctor” and so on.
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u/napsterwinamp 6h ago
It’s a political comment on surveillance software already being used. Madison Square Garden used the technology to kick out a lawyer that was working for a firm that had a lawsuit out against MSG: https://www.pcmag.com/news/msg-facial-recognition-tech-gets-lawyer-kicked-out-of-radio-city-show
Israel has been using it in Gaza: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/19/idf-facial-recognition-surveillance-palestinians
Turkey has been using it to crackdown on “political dissenters”: https://idtechwire.com/turkey-intensifies-crackdown-on-dissent-with-facial-recognition-surveillance/
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u/nonchalantqt 2h ago edited 2h ago
The visuals of the show also included many unnerving details about what’s happening in Gaza, Ukraine, the Congo, US governmental policy etc.
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u/SaigonDisko 10h ago
Saw the same as part of their Madrid show about a year ago. Was interesting to see people's reactions go from pointing, smiling and waving, to realising the tech being used was actually very unnerving and could easily be abused at government level.
The whole show was jarring but incredible. Everything they projected had a deeper meaning like that. They also had a sea of flights like a departures board and one by one they started staying delayed and then turned red and cancelled. I read that as the the agenda WEF stuff and slowly winding down the ability to fly places for everyday people. Once again control.
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u/Hour_Sign_85 11h ago
Saw these visuals live at Victoria park a couple of months back. Never seen massive attack live but the combination on documentary crazy interactive visuals and there music was insane. Best performance I have ever seen
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u/ssushi-speakers 12h ago
Was there any explanation? Or just a warning of what's to come... Or what is now.
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u/qualia-assurance 5h ago edited 4h ago
It's probably just coincidence but Benn Jordan has been playing with various aspects of machine learning in recent years. Initially about things like generative AI in the music scene but has expanded it in to his hobby of tinkering with audio electronics. He recently made a video about machine vision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9MwZkHiMQ
I'm guessing a creative application of this kind of research is in demo scene type stage shows.
Maybe a little dystopian if an authoritarian state used it to crack down on their citizens, and perhaps that's still a risk in more democratic places given how Benn shows that information is being shared for right price. But at the same time CCTV has been put to great use in the UK in solving anti-social behaviour in city centres at night, then it's also kind of a good thing. We already live in a world where your phone data is likely being shared in ways that allows large corporations far too much information about you. So these technologies aren't entirely new ground, it's just the same thing in a new form. And as a victim of an unprovoked violent assault my mixed feelings sway towards CCTV being a net good.
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u/Jinny261 5h ago
You are being watched. The government has a secret system, a machine that spies on you every hour of every day.
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u/huxtiblejones 4h ago
Wrote this as a response to another comment that was deleted, but here's more info for people:
The government is using it in a variety of ways: Here’s where the US government is using facial recognition technology to surveil Americans
Some examples: In several states, including Texas, Florida, and Illinois, the FBI is allowed to use facial recognition technology to scan through DMV databases of drivers’ license photos. In many US airports, Customs and Border Protection now uses facial recognition to screen passengers on international flights. And in cities such as Baltimore, police have used facial recognition software to identify and arrest individuals at protests.
But it's also not exactly known how it's used:
There’s still a lot of secrecy around how and where exactly facial recognition technology is used. Elected officials have criticized how ICE and the FBI scan state drivers’ license photo databases with facial recognition tech without citizens’ consent, turning “state departments of motor vehicles databases into the bedrock of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure,” as the Washington Post first reported.
It's sometimes deployed as cameras by third parties that are used in cities: Facial recognition technology use in search for New Orleans jail escapees under scrutiny
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u/smokinDND 3h ago
I'm pretty sure facial recognition is obsolete, when everyone is walking around with a phone.
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u/ReXXXMillions 31m ago
Still pissed they haven't told us why they cancelled the US tour or given new dates..
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u/tonyt0nychopper 10h ago
This isn't a good thing. We’re heading down the wrong road.
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u/mucinexmonster 6h ago
Do you believe Massive Attack did this because they support on demand facial recognition?
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u/CyberPolack 9h ago
Read OP’s description. It’s not real facial recognition.
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u/Spencerlindsay 5h ago
I hate to be the "aaactually" guy but yeah, this is readily available face tracking you can use with a web cam. We used it for one of our interactives for the Portland Winter Light Festival: https://vimeo.com/995197969
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u/tonyt0nychopper 7h ago
I stand corrected in this case then. Still though, we are heading down the wrong road.
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u/UnmeiX 3h ago
I don't think OP's description debunks the facial recognition; it seems that the faces are simply tagged with identifiers relating to 'what they do' instead of by 'their legal name', probably to avoid actually doxxing people while still demonstrating how jarring and unnerving the technology is.
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u/drajne 3h ago
I doubt that the tags actually translate to what the people really do
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u/nonchalantqt 2h ago
Yeah obviously not. It was more so a part of a larger anti-institution theme the concert’s visuals had.
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u/billycorganscum 8h ago
confused to see a handful of people in the comments who are unaware of massive attacks way of making political statements