Assignment NCI-7061/01 (Part 3 - Two More Reports, A Tape Recording, Some Surveillance Footage, And A Question)

Operatives AliasK and Johana (aka Jojo, as in "Operative Jojo is tasked to secure the briefcase") have posted reports on last Sunday.

Johana's is brief but extremely interesting. She's a dark horse, and her blog is one to watch. (See also this recent post by piking NCI-7061/01 invitee Operative "had to work that day" Tript.)

K's also put up an MP3 of the recorded message from Charles Hastings.

Xade's posted a very interesting piece of media.

And Random Voodoo has a pertinent enquiry, which I second.

Assignment NCI-7061/01 (Part 2 - Briefing)

Well, the mandatory seven day embargo period is up, so I've decided to post the briefing for Assignment NCI-7061/01, which I received on the 15th, and posted a reference to here the following day.

NCI-7061/01 was, of course, last Sunday's much heralded multiple-operative assignment.

I haven't included the map, but it took place at the end of North Wharf in Melbourne's docklands, under the shadow of Bolte Bridge.

I'm still thinking about what to say regarding what went down. I may post an abridged version of my report, but I filed this right on the dot of Friday's deadline, and haven't received an acknowledgement of it yet from the 'Cam themselves. I'll wait until that happens first. (Li and Random have posted theirs. If anyone spots any more online, do please advise.)

Suffice to say the operation was not what it appeared to be.

NEUROCAM ASSIGNMENT ­ NCI ­ 7061/01 ­ [COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE INTERCEPT]

Area Search and Object Recovery

(A) AIM

The recovery of an object which has been stolen from Neurocam International.

(B) CONTEXT

It has been brought to the attention of Neurocam’s Human Resources Security Division that a disgruntled Neurocam operative has been engaging in corporate espionage. Prior to this individual being identified, several high security rated documents and other company properties were removed from Neurocam’s Melbourne offices.

The operative responsible has been dismissed from the organization, but, despite concerted efforts to the contrary on Neurocam's behalf, to effect his detainment, remains at large.

Intercepted communiqués have revealed that the operative intends to transfer the materials, to persons unknown, via the use of a covert “dead drop” location. Although HR Security personnel have managed to identify the general vicinity where this will occur, the exact location remains unknown.

Neurocam's intelligence reports suggest that the operative will secrete the object at the “dead drop” at approximately 4.30pm on Sunday February 20, 2005. It is also expected that the object will be collected by the alternate party at approximately 6.30pm.

It is critical that the materials are located and recovered without the engagement of the other parties. Ongoing intelligence operations depend on the insurance of the covert nature of this operation until at least seven (7) days after it is completed.

(C) EXECUTION

Below are the procedural details for this assignment. Any deviation from the operational protocol, outlined below, will result in disciplinary action, and likely dismissal of the operative/s from Neurocam International. If there are any doubts about this please contact operations (operations@neurocam.com).

1. At 5pm on Sunday February 20, 2005 you are to arrive at the location detailed in the map provided.

2. Please be aware that you will be met at this location by other Neurocam operatives.

3. Without revealing excessive personal information, you will need to operate as a team to search the area for the materials. You are to begin no earlier than 5.15pm.

4. Neurocam's intelligence reports suggest that it is likely that there will be one object at the location which contains or acts as a key to detecting and/or accessing another secure item, that likely contains Neurocam's proprietary materials. Once you have located and recovered the item use whatever means are necessary to *safely* retrieve the materials.

5. Once the materials are secured you are to vacate the area in an expedient fashion, removing only Neurocam's materials, and leaving the location as close to the condition it was in when you arrived.

6. All operatives are then required to submit a detailed report of their specific involvement in this assignment, and the nature of the events that occur, to the Operations Division (operations@neurocam.com) by close of business Friday February 25, 2005

(D) OPERATIVE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

It is known that part of the search area may be under water so sturdy, waterproof footwear will be required to facilitate a thorough search of the location.

(E) OPERATIONAL SECURITY

Neurocam International is aware that many operatives publicly discuss and relate their Neurocam experiences via online forums and web journals. Operatives are only permitted to disclose the details of this assignment after a period of at least seven (7) days after the successful completion of the assignment has elapsed.

If you have any doubts about what is allowed under this clause, please contact the Operations Division before publication. Please note - due to the deployment of multiple operatives it is essential that all operatives display their Neurocam Identifiers throughout their participation in this assignment. This will enable operatives to verify each others affiliation and limit the potential for infiltration by operatives working against Neurocam International's interests.

(F) TIMELINE

It is essential that Neurocam Operatives do not arrive before 5pm. An early arrival may alert the rogue operative to our intentions.
In addition, to ensure the safety of all operatives, and the viability of continued counter-intelligence operations it is critical that all operatives have vacated the search area by 6:00 PM, prior to the arrival of the alternate parties.

Spycam Profane Entertainment Presents "Traverse" & (un)conchis

New update at Hely's - it's a mocked-up poster for a movie directed by Hely and starring Robert Henley, amongst others.

UPDATE: "Traverse", as LadyJ helpfully points out here, is the name of a 2003 video work by Hely featuring some of his experimental hidden camera footage.

Elsewhere, in a post speculating on possible links between the 'Cam and Archavida, Q oh-so-casually drops a link to this blog, which details the very colourful Neuro-adventures of a London operative between September & November of last year. The final entry on the 12th promises an update on the 19th, which never appears. Hmm.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a report to finish..

Hely In Arrest Hoax Drama

Operative Random Voodoo reported yesterday on the dicovery of a Wikipedia entry about Neurocam, which claimed Robin Hely was arrested earlier this month for misappropriating Innocence's Arts Victoria funding to buy Neurocam ads.

I mailed Hely about this. He replied with a categorical denial:

The information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurocam is complete fabrication. I once assumed Henley's character as an art project I created called "Who is Robert Henley", but have not had any cause to imitate him (if he even exists) since. Peter Burke is a friend of mine and we have collaborated on several projects. I was part of the Innocence team but had nothing to do with the funding of the project, all of which was used solely for Innocence's billboards.

As you probably know I have been a Neurocam operative in the past and even made an art project about Neurocam in NZ. I have been following Neurocam in Australia with much interest and can't wait to hear about the group mission on Sunday. I have been involved in several group assignments myself and know how much fun they can be ... Unfortunately I was dismissed from Neurocam during early 2000 as they did not appreciate my art project which was set up as an expose of Neurocam.

And robinhely.com has been updated with the message: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurocam is complete fabrication".

The Wikipedia entry itself has been replaced with the message: "Neurocam' [sic] page removed due to legal procedings".

Thoughts On Discretion & Keeping Neurocam Happy

Following some interesting inter-operative correspondence this week, I have been thinking about the following clause in the Operative Guide:

"We would prefer that Operatives display a high degree of discretion when relating details of Neurocam’s operational practices."

I have, I suppose, been working on the following assumptions:

• Neurocam is essentially a conceptual art project.
• It follows that - whatever we're-a-highly-covert-operation shit they spin - its puppetmasters (for want of a better word) are actually seeking to generate as much dialogue as possible, within the limitations explicitly prescribed by assignment briefings.
• The silence clauses may or may not exist for good reasons, but they are enforced by threat of expulsion and should be obeyed on that basis, at least.
• The employment of other discretionary tactics may be practical, prudent or just good manners - for example, protecting the identity of sources who wish to remain anonymous.
• Beyond that, you are playing the game well by being talkative.

What if these assumptions are misguided, though? What if Neurocam really does want operatives to be as discreet as possible?

Hmm. Hmm, hmm.

Hely Speaks and Entrances

Non-blogging operative Aphex'sTwin sent some enquiries to the Hotmail address which appeared briefly on robinhely.com the other day, and has received the following response:

>A simple enough question, are you or have
>you been involved with Neurocam
>International (http://www.neurocam.com)?

Yes

>Also, if applicable, are you responsible for
>the art piece Project Neurocam, which was
>displayed at the COCA in New Zealand?

Yes. The work was made as a response to my involvement with the organisation known as Neurocam. I became an operative during 1999 and displayed that work in early 2000.

>Furthermore, can you confirm or deny any
>ongoing collaboration with Peter Bourke,
>who also attended the VCA?

Peter and I are not collaborating on any projects at present. Our last collaboration was a work entitled Delivery which was made in Portugal during 2002. By the way I did not attend the VCA, I worked there part time and had an artist in residence position for 2 months.

Robin Hely

On another tack, operatives scratching their heads over Assignment NCI-8063/01 (controversially leaked by a no doubt now ex-operative via Kybalion's neuroboard) might find some inspiration here.

Things Are Getting Interesting On Several Fronts

But I'm hungry and I've run out of cigarettes. I feel unusual. I think I should go outside.

I want a new and less generic template; can anyone recommend one?

Oh, and robinhely.com has been updated again.

That is all. For the moment.

Assignment NCI-7061/01

>May I announce the receipt of "a new assignment" and quote its
>codenumber?

That is acceptable.

Neville Harris
Administration
Neurocam International

Neurocam Is Not A Psychology Experiment

Although of course if it was, they would say that.

This post by Aaron Swartz relating an anecdote about Philip G. Zimbardo put me in mind of Zimbardo's infamous Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971, which has some Neurocamlike qualitites. Zimbardo himself maintains a creepily unrepentant site about this "classic" study of authoritarian and subservient behaviour in a controlled environment, which makes for quite interesting reading, especially in light of various recent scandals.

Elsewhere, "The Perils Of Obedience", an essay by Stanley Milgram, extracted from his 1983 book "Obedience To Authority", reflecting on his almost-but-not-quite-equally notorious experiments:

Before the experiments, I sought predictions about the outcome from various kinds of people ... With remarkable similarity, they predicted that virtually all the subjects would refuse to obey the experimenter. The psychiatrist, specifically, predicted that most subjects would not go beyond 150 volts, when the victim makes his first explicit demand to be freed. They expected that only 4 percent would reach 300 volts, and that only a pathological fringe of about one in a thousand would administer the highest shock on the board.

These predictions were unequivocally wrong. Of the forty subjects in the first experiment, twenty-five obeyed the orders of the experimenter to the end, punishing the victim until they reached the most potent shock available on the generator.

404

'During the war, when I had a great deal of time to think, and no friends to amuse me, I conceived a new kind of drama. One in which the conventional separation between actors and audience was abolished. In which the conventional scenic geography, the notions of proscenium, stage, auditorium, were completely discarded. In which continuity of performance, either in time or place, was ignored. And in which the action, the narrative was fluid, with only a point of departure and a fixed point of conclusion. Between those points the participants invent their own drama ...

We are all actors here, my friend. None of us is what we really are. We all lie some of the time, and some of us all the time.'

I was able to belatedly complete Assignment NCI-2332 today. Not entirely uncoincidentally, I've started reading some book by John Fowles.

I Heart Xul Solar 23

..so much that I don't even care who s/he is anymore.

You are the NeuroOp with the midas touch. Keep on spreading that bizarre and confounding misinformation. And that disturbingly legitimate speculation, n'all.

I like you a lot, and I will award you.

Incidentally, as previously linked above, Delta's been getting some interesting replies out of Maxwell Knight:

The organization currently known as Neurocam
has been in existence for in excess of thirty years. The name “Neurocam”, however, was only adopted in 2000.

..which was, of course, the year Robin Hely exhibited his work "Project Neurocam" in NZ.

Googling on Hely just now turned up this PDF, which I haven't seen before. On page 3, Hely writes about developing the hidden camera arrangement presumably also used for "Cherrie":

My intention for this project was to spend as much time as possible over the last 3 weeks recording with the hidden spycamera unit. The process of editing the footage began to suggest the possibility for narratives within what seemed to be exceedingly banal material.

Perhaps it was just my imagination. Exploring combinations of filters, quick cuts and a soundtrack/voice-over made the work into something I found kinda funny. I guess if I had to state this in a more intellectual way I would start wanking on about "explorations of narratives found all around us" and "the banal becoming sublime" and all that crappola, but that's not really my thing...

Young Atom is Anna Schmit

Or, at a stretch, someone who hacked YA's Blogger account. And, as forcast in a comment on my initial Shmit post by someone using the name Ken Dyers and citing Young Atom's blog as their homepage, a new blog belonging to a certain Xul Solar 23 appeared yesterday, offering a distinctly Shmitsian blend of surrealism, topical Neurosatire and intruige:

I am in contact with operatives who are not part of the Neuroblog community, and who seem to receive assignments of differing calibre to the ones mentioned on the Internet. I will obviously have to take care as to where I step in this regard, as the world of Neurobloggers is one filled with spite and animosity.

Is it? I think we're quite a civilised bunch really.

That said, I should note - lest I find myself being accused of.. I dunno, something - that Xul firmly states:

The allegations that I am in some way involved in the Young Atom / Anna Schmidt prank are completely false.

Welcome to the fold, anyway. Whoever the hell you are.

Schmit in "Not Real" Shock and Neuroboards

It seems - although I missed it - that after being dissed in comments on her blog by Elmo Oxygen for acting in poor taste, 'Anna Schmit' has retreated back into the realms of fancy from whence she came. Which is a shame. FWIW, I found her two entries entertaining, and although she was milking the not-actually-funny-at-all Rau affair for humour, I think it's being a tad overserious to claim the endeavour was somehow unacceptable on that basis.

(To reiterate: contrary to speculations inspired by our common Blogger template, I had nothing to do with Schmitgate.)

In other news, Kybalion aka Simon Moon and Delta have both created PHP-based Neurodiscussion boards. Kybalion's appears to be the classier setup, but so far Delta's is attracting the most activity.

(QED reports that someone's also started a Neurocam LiveJournal community, but I'm quite literally not even gonna go there.)

Investigating Neurofailure (Part 2)

I remain skeptical about Fischer's 26% figure, but Cardoza Investigations has closed its case on the Neurocam rejection letter affair. Having interrogated several purported Neurorejectees and received assurances from Human Resources & Security Division Head - and resident operative querymeister - Maxwell Knight, Avery's satisfied that Neurocam does at least occasionally knock back prospectives.

And, In A Surreal Turn Of Events

The unfortunate Ms Cornelia Rau, having absconded from a New South Wales mental hospital in March of last year, wound up being wrongly imprisoned for 10 months at the Baxter detention centre in South Australia after Queensland police mistook her for an illegal immigrant. She was claiming to be a German woman named Anna Schmit. (ABC - no, not that ABC - coverage here; energetic commentary on this rather apalling fiasco by Xade here.)

What's all this got to do with Neurocam? I'm glad you asked.

It turns out - hot flash! - that 'Anna Schmit' is not, as some might assume, merely a symptom of Rau's chronic schizophrenia, but rather a Neurocam operative who was assigned to take remote psychic possession of Rau's body from a top secret 'Cam facility in Cologne.

You want proof? She's got a blog.

Remember, you heard it here first. (Unless you heard about it from the comment Schmit left at Lady J's.)

Investigating Neurofailure

Operative Avery "Shamus" Cardoza - having explosively blown the lid off groundless rumours (originating on the Gaia forums and innocently perpetuated by Xade) about Neurocam billboards supposedly sighted in the US - is now investigating the veracity of the unfiction forums-posted Neurocam rejection letter, which as he points out, looks a bit iffy.

Does Neurocam really grant Operative status to only 26% of applicants, as claimed by CEO Bridget Fischer in their standard acceptance letter?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Neurocam Requests The Pleasure

I was going to keep quiet about this one for the moment but Li's already blown the trumpet on it (along with alias K and an operative called ukelele, in the comments on Tript's followup to his earlier Iocus Severus post), so why not - Hastings has sent out an availabilty call for an as-yet-undisclosed operation "which will require the deployment of multiple operatives" between 5 and 6pm on Sunday the 20th.

I've RSVP'd - looking forward to seeing Li turn up in a stolen pleececar looking as though many of his dreams have been destroyed.

Meanwhile, a Bournemouth (UK) op on the unfiction boards has been assigned to search for potential dead drop locations in their locale.

And later in that same thread - this is a first AFAIK - someone reports failing their initial perception assessment.

My Report For Assignment NCI-2332/01 Has Been Received & Filed

Email from Mr. Hastings last night.

"Neurocam International appreciates the unorthodox nature of this assignment and your willingness to continue your association with the organization despite this unusual request."

That's awful decent of yiz, Neurocam International.

I will receive the details of my next assignment shortly. Yay!

Curious picture at Li's (something to do with covert training, y'reckon?).

Juicy morsel concerning a meeting with the inscrutiable Iocus Severus at Tript's.

Assignment NCI-2332/01 Not Completed & Miscellaneous Catchups

Today was my deadline for Assignment NCI-2332/01, but I've only managed to complete 50% of it. I'll submit my report anyway. I'm aware that at least one other op piked on this one, and hasn't been overtly penalised or given their Neuro-marching orders. So we'll see what happens.

The recently established blog of new Melbourne operative Jonathan, who boldly posted a photo (reproduced by LadyJ here) of the Official Neurocam Identifier retrieved by ops participating in Assignment NCI-3001/02, has disappeared. Coincidence? Hmm..

All's quiet on the robinhely.com front for the moment. At the beginning of the week it went yellow and offered, cryptically, "THE SNEAKER PIMP". LadyJ posted a theory that this was a reference to a New Zealand academic called Gareth Schott, whose interests tend towards the Neurocamesque, but robinhely.com quickly updated to "NOT THAT SNEAKER PIMP", before lapsing into the sulky red silence in which it's remained since.

A lot of new ops completed Applicant Perception Assessment NCI-2001/01 on the 31st, including Avery Cardoza, Constance P, Elmo Oxygen, Midnight, and Piankhi. Some of them have posted their reports, too.

Also on the 31st, operative Ophidius emailed the 'Cam with an enquiry about the meaning of the "cam" in "Neurocam", and received a tantalizing reply from Neuroadmin Neville Harris:

The origins and true meaning of the name Neurocam are unknown to all but a select few within the organization. Even level 4 operatives like myself do not have access to any information like that.

He suggested Ophidius try putting the question to CEO Bridget Fischer, which Ophidius did. Ms Fischer was not amused, but she did deign to furnish a response of sorts, however unilluminating:

As you have already, through no fault of your own, wasted a moment of my time, I will address your question – The origins of the name Neurocam are known only to the organization’s founders. Those individuals no longer participate in the day-to-day running of the organization, thus I am unable to provide you with an answer to your question.