To Protect and Server

Artists

Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Mark Ramos

Check Out The Live Version Here: To Protect and Server

Install Instructions and Source Here: To Protect and Server (Github)

Video

Press

“ReCaptcha reconfigured to train people on what is deemed “unacceptable uses of force” by police“, Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing, August 26, 2020.

Exhibitions

“Ways of Protest Exhibition” Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales, UK, November 23, 2020 – January 23, 2021.

Description

“To Protect and Server” is a reconfiguration of Google’s popular “ReCaptcha” software that helps protect websites from spam and abuse. A “CAPTCHA” is a turing test to tell humans and bots apart. “It is easy for humans to solve, but hard for “bots” and other malicious software to figure out. By adding reCAPTCHA to a site, you can block automated software while helping your welcome users to enter with ease.” Google’s system uses images that a human must identify and decode in order to pass a digital barrier of entry.

Still Images from “Police Enforcement VR : 1-King-27“

“To Protect and Server” utilizes the ReCaptcha system but re-appropriates a randomized selection of 30 perceived images of “Police Brutality” in an attempt to train the population on what is deemed “unacceptable uses of force” by police who are paid to protect the public. The project is also a metaphor for CAPTCHA software acting in the same way police do to “supposedly” protect the Internet from malicious content and bad actors but fail the public far too often. When a user successfully chooses the images in the CAPTCHA they are redirected to a video of the VR game “Police Enforcement VR:1-King-27”, “Police Enforcement VR” is a VR open world police simulator where players can attend a virtual “Police Academy” to train to become a police officer. Players start as Police recruits and then work to advance their careers. Players of the game can roam free on the map, accept calls from dispatch, or catch suspects on foot and by car. Ultimately, “To Protect and Server” will train any individual to think like a police officer while taking into account their implicit biases.