Wednesday 25 February 2009

Nyman's Double Standards

In today's Arts Diary in the Guardian G2, it's noted that composer Michael Nyman has objected to the installation of CCTV in his local pub, The Draper's Arms.

According to the article he has launched a stinging attack on the the government's growing surveillance culture in the Islington Tribune with the splash headline "COMPOSER IN ATTACK ON PUB CAMERAS."


So is this the same Michael Nyman that only a month earlier was featured in the same Guardian G2 in an article entitled "My Best Shot", talking about his best photographs?
He says:
"I took these pictures during the literature festival in Mantua, Italy, three or four years ago... I leaned out of my window and saw an unexpected photo opportunity: a busy Saturday afternoon, with my subjects below, oblivious to me... In the end, I stood there for half an hour, taking between 60 and 100 pictures."
Or perhaps he might be related to the video maker Michael Nyman who was interviewed about his exhibition, Videofile, at De La Warr Pavilion in The Financial Times in January.
He reveals that he "shot part of the video from inside a dark and narrow passage, looking towards a sunlit street where Venetians walk by." And then goes on to insist that “people are never aware of me filming them”.
So who's watching who watching whom?