This is a pretty neat use of CCTV cameras. The new group Get Out Clause has decided that, rather than higher a camera crew to film their music video, they would play in 80 public places across Manchester and then request the videos recorded by CCTV cameras in the area. Places included a bus, an amphitheatre, and even an escalator. Doing so has given them publicity on Slashdot and the Telegraph. This is ingenuity that at the same time highlights the monitored culture that at least Britons find themselves living in.

I’m mostly ambivalent about CCTV. When I had one of my Oxford bike accidents on the corner of George and New Inn Hall St years ago, the not-very-friendly cab driver that broad-sided me (his fault, license plate MER M70) said he wouldn’t pay for my repairs. The whole thing was filmed on the CCTV of the local pub O’Neil’s, but because of so many other things going on in my life at the time, I didn’t get the chance to request the footage. My suspicion is that they would have complied though. . .

[Edit: it’s a shame that they decided to use the brightcove player to post the video, as there’s no easy way I know of to embed it in my blog. Click the picture to see the video.]