The 1984 Collection

Privacy isn't about having something to hide. It's about preserving your right to be left alone.

The 1984 Collection takes aim at mass surveillance, automated license plate readers, facial recognition, location tracking, warrantless searches of private data, and the growing infrastructure capable of recording the movements of ordinary people.

The East German Stasi built one of history's most notorious surveillance states. It relied on an enormous network of official personnel and civilian informants to watch ordinary citizens, document their associations, and maintain millions of files. Some broader historical estimates have placed the reach of its informer network as high as one informant for every six or seven East Germans.

And they did it with informants, paper files, hidden microphones, film cameras, and enormous manpower.

Imagine what the Stasi could have done with the surveillance technology available today.

Cameras can identify vehicles. Databases can record where they were and when. Digital systems can store, search, share, and analyze enormous amounts of information almost instantly.

And we're supposed to be reassured because we've done nothing wrong.

That's precisely the point.

Free people should not have to justify why they don't want to be watched.

George Orwell's 1984 was a warning about what happens when surveillance and state power become inseparable. The technology has changed. Human nature hasn't.

The 1984 Collection uses satire, history, and dark humor to defend individual privacy and challenge the normalization of mass surveillance.

The technology will keep advancing. The databases will keep growing. The cameras won't stop watching on their own.

So where does it end?

When is enough, enough?