Classes
Eyes From The Street: Inverse Surveillance for Public Safety
Ages 18 and up
April 4–25, 2025
6–8pm, Fridays
Image Credit: Sam Hafferty
Instructor
Sam "Sim" Hafferty
Pricing
$250 (tuition assistance available)
Dates
4 April - 25 April
In the United States, surveillance is positioned as a necessary public safety measure. Though widely adopted, there is a critical lack of oversight, transparency, and public consent on its effectiveness and ethics. Eyes From The Street: Inverse Surveillance for Public Safety will explore dragnets, arrest records, airport security tactics, and school monitoring initiatives alongside practical exercises such as warwalking, handmade algorithmic object detection, packet analysis, and FOIA digging. Learners will develop multi-disciplinary investigations into a state surveillance mechanism of their choosing, which will culminate in a presentation of participants’ creative research.
This course will be held in person at the Abrons Arts Center. All courses will gather on Wednesday April 30 for a culminating share out.
For a longer course description, please visit The School of Making Thinking’s page.
About Sam "Sim" Hafferty
Sam "Sim" Hafferty is a researcher and artist focused on privacy education and digital connectivity. Their time-based media works have been exhibited at E-Flux, Pioneer Works, Carnegie Museum of Art and the Maysles Documentary Center. They are currently a research fellow at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy. They previously served as an arts and literacy instructor for the Free Library of Philadelphia and hold an M.P.S. in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU Tisch as well as a B.A. in History and Post-Colonial Studies from NYU Gallatin.
Partnership
Eyes from the Street is curated in partnership with The School of Making Thinking.
This program is supported through a Cultural Development Fund grant awarded to The School of Making Thinking from the New York Department of Cultural Affairs.
Tuition Assistance
Abrons offers tuition assistance to any student whose household makes under $50,000 annually. Through our NYCHA Arts Initiative, classes are FREE for all NYCHA residents living in zip codes 10002, 10003, 10009, and 10038.
For courses offered in partnership with the School of Making Thinking, we also offer a sliding scale for people of color, trans people, and/or disabled people.