Artwork explores the potential of smart devices as crime-fighting tools

Auckland – Monitor is an interactive website that examines the ethics of data collection.

Artist Luke Munn was keen to explore how data tracked by Internet of Things (IOT)-enabled devices is used as well as abused. The project was inspired by a suspected homicide case in Arkansas, where police issued and were subsequently granted a warrant to mine an Amazon Alexa-enabled device for data.

Visitors are greeted by a simulated desktop upon which a murder mystery-style series of events unfolds in the form of pop-up notifications from smart devices including a Nest thermostat and cocktail-mixing app Perfect Drink.

As an abstract piece, Monitor conjures up more questions than it does answers, especially regarding humanity’s relationship with contemporary technology and culture. With the ethics around smart home technology yet to be firmly established, the amount of data consumers will readily submit to their IoT devices and how far they will allow them to intervene in their domestic lives remains to be seen.