Erika Blair's Surveillance Performance at Rope Gallery Coincides with Apple-FBI Legal Battle

On February 20, 2016, the Rope Gallery in Baltimore launched an exhibition by Erika Blair called 'This is Only A Test.' The display featured an HP desktop printer that produced images captured by three surveillance cameras, all while Blair monitored the proceedings from the basement using three laptops. For three hours, loud audio snippets from Chicago's 1990s Emergency Broadcast System echoed through large speakers. This event coincided with a high-profile legal dispute between the FBI and Apple over phone encryption. Blair's work comments on surveillance capitalism, referencing past government overreach like the Church Committee and the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigations. The installation also touched on crowd control technologies and the growing role of surveillance in daily life, prompting many attendees to stay in the storefront area to avoid the surveillance elements.