San José Museum of Art

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Surveillance, Security, and Privacy to be the Subject of Pecha Kucha Night at SJMA September 17

Release date

For Immediate Release
Press contact: Sherrill Ingalls, 408-271-6872 or singalls@sjmusart.org
Digital images available upon request

SAN JOSE, California (September 4, 2015)— Pecha Kucha San Jose will return to the San Jose Museum of Art for an evening of fast-paced presentations on Thursday, September 17, 2015, at 7 PM. Seven experts and activists will present a variety of perspectives on data collection, surveillance, privacy, and security, moderated by Ric Bretschneider, founder of Pecha Kucha San Jose. Tickets are $5 (free to members) and are available here. The ticket price includes admission to the museum from 5 to 9 PM, including the current exhibition Covert Operations: Investigating the Known Unknowns. Pecha Kucha is a presentation format where presenters use just 20 slides to tell their story. Each slide is set to advance in 20 seconds, limiting each talk to 6 minutes 40 seconds.

Scheduled speakers are:

  • Tessa D'Arcangelew, leadership development manager and organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union;
  • Chris Garcia, curator, Computer History Museum, who will discuss wearable technology and self-surveillance;
  • Michelle Maranowski, curator and exhibit developer, The Tech
  • Museum of Innovation, who will discuss “smart museums” that rely on surveillance to enhance visitors’ experiences;
  • Dr. David Schuster, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at San Jose State University;
  • Ralph Simpson, volunteer at History San Jose and and expert in cipher machines and the early history of surveillance;
  • Chris Treggiari, performance artist and co-creator of Eyes on Oakland, a project of the Mobile Arts Platform and the Center for Investigative Reporting that took a community-focused look at surveillance in Oakland,;
  • Ali Winston, award winning journalist who covers law enforcement, criminal justice and surveillance for the Center for Investigative Reporting.

PechaKucha Night: Devised, Shared & Supported by Klein Dytham Architecture www.PechaKucha.org

The program is presented in connection with the exhibition Covert Operations: Investigating the Known Unknowns, a survey of work by artists who are responding to the uncertainties of the post-9/11 world. The exhibition includes works by international artists who pursue the complex relationships among freedom, security, privacy, and secrecy in the violent and volatile decades following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. These artists employ the tools of democracy to bear witness to attacks on liberty and abuses of power.

The Computer History Museum, History San Jose, and The Tech Museum of Innovation also currently feature exhibitions that relate to the topic of surveillance, privacy, and technology. On You: A Story of Wearable Computing, on view at the Computer History Museum through September 20, 2015, looks at the changing technology of wearables. History San Jose’s exhibition The Wireless Age: Electronics Entrepreneurs Before Silicon Valley (September 6, 2015 – July 31, 2016) includes surveillance equipment among many other artifacts from the Perham Collection of Early Electronics. Cyber Detectives, now open at The Tech, is the first interactive exhibit in the U.S. about Internet privacy and online attacks. It invites guests to enter a training zone filled with games and challenges about passwords, encryption, phishing, malware, networks, and code-cracking.

SAN JOSE MUSEUM OF ART
The San Jose Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought-provoking, the Museum rejects stuffiness and delights visitors with its surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time.

The San Jose Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street in downtown San Jose, California. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 PM to 5 PM and until 8 PM or later on the third Thursday of each month. As of October 3, 2015, admission is $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens, $6 for students, $5 for youth ages 7 – 18, and free to members and children 6 and under. For more information, call 408-271-6840 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.

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Programs at the San Jose Museum of Art are made possible by generous operating support from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, The Lipman Family Foundation, and a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San Jose. 

Covert Operations is made possible by an Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award. The Exhibition Award program was founded in 1998 to honor Emily Hall Tremaine. It rewards innovation and experimentation among curators by supporting thematic exhibitions that challenge audiences and expand the boundaries of contemporary art. Additional support for the exhibition catalogue was provided by Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation.

The presentation of Covert Operations at the San Jose Museum of Art and the related community programs are sponsored by Donna Dubinsky and Leonard Shustek, the Frank-Ratchye Family Foundation in honor of Jenny Holzer, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Melanie and Peter Cross, and McManis Faulkner. Mobile technology for visitor engagement and feedback has been made possible by in-kind support from the app CrowdPoll.