This exhibition considerations the UK’s Freedom of Data Act 2000, its mechanisms and provisos, and articulation of management. It’s composed of seven wall-mounted vitrines of various sizes. Contained in each are Freedom of Data (FOI) request response letters despatched by 17 British ministries and governmental departments to actual, anonymised individuals between 1st October 2023 and twenty ninth October 2024. Each response declines to fulfil the cited request and specifies the rationale/s for the refusal in line with a number of of 16 exemptions. The vitrines instil a mirage of transparency which isn’t coincidental.
To acquire the letters, Ceidra Moon Murphy submitted her personal FOI requests to the respective state our bodies. On show are the whole supplies disclosed to her in these instances the place the request was profitable. Unseen listed below are the puckered replies to her inquiries, the faceless calls for for clarification or qualification, and the routine techniques of delay and/or restriction. Occupying this void as a substitute, the muffled ministerial voice that addresses the redacted topics dismissed herein is about towards their various tonal registers, from the unrehearsed appeals of civilians to the proleptic phrasings of journalists in search of a scoop.
Murphy has organised the correspondence in line with every exemption utilized, as it’s enumerated within the Act (as an example, Part 43 Industrial pursuits). The place multiple exemption is invoked, the letter is duplicated. In each ensuing stack, papers are additional sorted alphabetically by division, after which by date. The requests embody points starting from the availability of vegan diets to vegan prisoners and statistics on nitazenes deaths and trendy slavery offences to Myra Hindley’s police interview transcript, takeaway orders positioned by the House Workplace, US-UK transfers of radioactive supplies, and correspondence on ADHD medicine shortages between the British authorities and Takeda Prescribed drugs.
Silhouetted behind every work is the Public Curiosity Check (PIT). Because the UK Data Commissioner’s Workplace stipulates, “The general public curiosity right here means the general public good.”
