Ken Goldberg + Alpha Lab: Demonstrate

For Demonstrate, Ken Goldberg and the Alpha Lab team installed a then state-of-the-art robotic web camera in Sproul Plaza at the University of California, Berkeley, to mark the fortieth anniversary of the school’s Free Speech Movement (FSM). In 1964, Berkeley students protested when the university banned political activities on campus, particularly the use of the plaza and Sproul Hall for organizing. What began as small sit-ins escalated into large-scale civil disobedience, resulting in the arrest of hundreds of students and spurring student activism on college campuses nationwide. The Demonstrate camera was accessible on the web for six weeks. Users could control it remotely, zoom in with high resolution, and view live activity twenty-four hours a day. Viewers could take snapshots, post them to the project website, and add comments. The system supported up to twenty participants at once, and when multiple users were active, the camera combined their commands to produce a collectively determined view. Demonstrate both explored the role of the university in engaging with political issues and highlighted emerging camera technologies. It raised critical questions about privacy, surveillance, and the use of webcams and mobile phone cameras in public space.

The original Demonstrate included a live webcam feed that shut down in October 2004.