The Science of… (Science & Media LLP), a new standalone partnership between the Science Museum and Fleming Media has contracted Troika to propose 5 speculative products for their new exhibition ‘Spymaker – The science of spying' which will launch on the 8th of February 2007 at the Science Museum in London, and, as a duplicate at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis on the 3rd of march 2007. The exhibition will then tour internationally for 5 years.

Troika's brief was to develop conceptual products which aim to embody future scenarios of spying as well as encouraging a debate around the theme. The proposed objects also needed to communicate to the main audience of the exhibition: children between 8 and 12 years old.

The selection of concepts and objects we have developed reflects our anticipations in the development of technology -especially technologies devoted to spying - as well as evolutions of contemporary behavioral and societal trends.

With websites like Flickr or reality TV programs like Big brother, spying seems to become more and more integrated in our popular culture, becoming a benign and everyday activity for millions of us.

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We developed several concepts like “Spying on Yourself” and   “Soft Spying”, as well as other Anti-spyware concepts and old school spy gadgets. Together with the Science of… we chose finally to develop the following objects.

“Spying on Yourself”

Considering the recent rise in self-awareness in an increasingly self-centered society, coupled with phenomena of instant stardom, reality TV and societal fragmentation, we can anticipate that the main thing, worth spying on in the future, will be yourself. ‘Spying on yourself' will allow you to get valuable insights about your own behavior, as well as allowing you to monitor, control and tune the image of yourself, which others spy on.

We have discovered that spying on yourself already exists in its infancy in the virtual world. Called ‘Myware', it is the logical evolution of Spyware. Myware programs are installed voluntarily on one's machine to get statistics of one's on-line behavior. Some more advanced versions will analyse your iTunes library to establish your taste profile and present you with a selection of music you might like.

In a similar way, we could imagine electronic products that will monitor your physical behavior, and the various non-verbal or subconscious signs you give away everyday, to offer you in return statistic of what you might like or dislike and suggestions on how to lead or improve your life.

However, we chose to present the concept in a more direct and tangible way, concentrating on controversial topics like vanity or lying to create objects that are both accessible for the audience and apt to generate a debate in a non-patronizing way.

'How Do I Look?' - Beauty Mirror.

'How do I Look?' is a Spy-on-yourself-device, which is concealed in a make-up box. It automatically connects you to the closest CCTV camera and enables you to check how you look on their recordings.

The Lie Trainer.

The Lie Trainer is a Spy-on-yourself-device that can assess if you are currently pulling a good lie or not. Concealed in a wrist-watch, the device monitors the user's pulse-rate, skin conductivity, and in-blood levels of adrenaline. If you happen to lie, the device will let you know by gently piercing you with the needles located on the reverse of the watch.

By constantly letting you know if you give others clues about your untruthfulness, the device slowly teaches you to have the confidence and calm to pull great lies anytime.

Part of the brief was also to develop ideas coming from the Science Museum audience, through a call for public submission.

In this context, we selected two particularly interesting idea, an anti-photography spray that we called Blur, and another spy beauty products called DNA Factor 40.

Blur Anti-Photography Spray
Idea by Kok-Chian Leong

Blur is a facial beauty spray for harassed celebrities. Applied to one's face, Blur exclusive formula enriched with ultra-reflective nano-particles will prevent any paparazzi from capturing your image (especially at night, when you are busy with rather personal matters).

Factor 40 DNA protection spray
Idea by Suw Charman.

Another anti-spyware beauty product that stops you shedding your unique DNA by keeping your cells in place while adding a fine dusting of other people's DNA.

With found this idea particularly compelling as it is known that thieves sometimes spread hairs collected at barber shops on their place of crime to confuse DNA analysis.