IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS, I've read a stellar novel, an amazingly detailed investigative piece, and now a shattering memoir about what happens when the machinery of fighting terrorism grinds innocents into victims. This subject is at the heart of Theatre Conspiracy's new play, Foreign Radical.
Read MoreI’m a research addict — by profession.
Imagine all the news or scholarship, cartoons or rants about cyber surveillance, censorship and the military industrial complex/security apparatus, hacking, wikileaks, and paranoia — I’m dedicated to absorbing every crumb.
As dramaturg for Foreign Radical I have licence to listen to Glenn Greenwaldtalk about Edward Snowdon (“research”), try to wrap my head around how one enters a trap door in a computer program and snatches material (“working!”), read Jason Ng’s book “Blocked on Weibo” and watch videos on Egyptian graffiti (“really, working”). The trick is to avoid following only the conversations or intellectual paths I agree with.
Read MoreHow soon until we think of privacy as just a product, rather than a right?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea since starting research on Foreign Radical. And I’ve been thinking more about it since seeing a photo of Obama in his privacy tent recently. When he’s on the road, the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility is set up in his hotel room, a special shield against the prying eyes and ears of oppressive regimes, allies, media and, probably, staff — all of whom have books to write upon leaving the White House.
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