2006-arphield recordings
Project documenting impromptu arphid sound performance produced by people scanning their oysters cards in the daily routine of access control to the london tube stations.
Showing at:
TAGGED one day event at SPACE Media Arts (NodeLondon March 2006)
Welcome Goodbye Adeus Obrigada (Stockwell Tube Station, June 2006),
TAGGED exhibition, SPACE Media Arts October 2006
Podcast: http://www.odeo.com/channel/85358
Links:
The Spychip Under Your Skin:RFID and the Tagged exhibition by Armin Medosch, Space Media Arts, October 2006,
networked performance> sound performance in london by Luis Silva;
we make money not art> arphid sound performances in the metro by Regine Debatty
MAzine> bruce sterling Rant @ Space “Arphid not RFID” by Luke Hearn
Mute magazine> Of RFIDs and Arphids: The logistics of the Future by Anthony Alexander
Test Dept> rfid memorial by Paul Jamrosy
Touch>Bruce Sterling at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ by Timo Arnall
Gonzo >Imaginaire geluidscartografie: rafelranden van de geluidskunst by Richard de Boer/dhabi recorder
theoretical arphids
Tagged presentation at ENGAGE/ HCI2006 conference, Queen Mary University London (11-15 September), during the workshop Designing the Not Quite Yet, organised by Ann Light (researcher based at QMUL) and Gini Simpson (Space Media Arts Coordinator). Presentations by Armin Medosch, mute-dialogue, processing plant, C6, boredomresearch and moi-self, offering a sneak preview of the exhibition that opens 6 October at Space
Before presenting arphieldRecordings, I did my spyveillance act, note-laptopped a bit, photobitted another, and what I lost in immediacy (felt like a camwoman, loggin in all the bits of what might have been a “quite not there yet” afternoon), I gained in documentation. So here they are, the latest to emerge in parallel to the rfid rampant industry, the new generation of theoretical arphids. These are arphids about rfid. These arphids speculate on rfid and rfid making, about the politics of rfid, about modes of tracking and other rfid hegemonies.
Armin Medosch who wrote the essay for the Tagged catalogue contextualised the topic of arphid, gently reminding us that the sun that for so long has been radiating frequency waves has now become part of a commercialised magneticscape at the service of tracking commodities and people; another point he emphasised is the uneven tracking, the divide between the voluntary adoption of arphids amongst high tech consumers moving in a seamless environment, while at same time arphid is made compulsory to asylum seekers.
The arphid divide was also part of Yasser Rashid’s presentation of Origins & Lemons by mute-dialogue,in which they critique how objects are tracked in the global commodities market. In the foreseen installation- a recreated market stall- arphids are placed inside the objects, invisible from audience. As they are scanned their history is made visible, as well as privacy and ethical concerns surrounding tracking. Objects chosen are socially and politically loaded. The market is used as a social practice, namely of black market. Issues of race and society in the markets of east London are also fore grounded. The question being: what remains in the periphery of id? The irony here consists in using rfid to track things that most commonly survive in the consumptive market by avoiding being tracked. A fake Louis Vuton handbag engages a playful narrative on the tracking of the clandestine.
Louis-Philippe Demers / processing plant, likely places arphids amongst other calm technologies, and with his project iTag makes a statement about the similarities between the apple mp3 players that everyone carries around and the chips that similarly can be used as plug and play: just put it on and listen to the music. No need for a user manual.
Mix ipod w/ arphid toys and behind it reappear the American Army and Walmart, the real forces behind what are both user-friendly and profile-driven objects. Essentially, the confluence between eficiency and privacy intrusion. Itag will be installed in the Holywood grocery store in Mare Street (next to the Space building), where the objects in the store shelves will be tagged. Handheld rfid reader picked up from Space, will read the trail of sounds “broadcast” by the items, and as you walk around the aisles, these arphids will talk around you, like a shopping-list muzak soundtrak.
C6 in the speech that delivered live the essay The Freemasons Of The Future Are Lurking In The Wardrobe, unzipped the ideologies embedded in the identity industry of western art and science.
With a proliferation of rfid aids reducing human beings to 0-dimensional points in a 2d space, and redoing for identity what television did for the imagination, C6 aim to critique the theory of spimes (the time+space gizmos) that repackages the idea of a 4th dimension with a simultaneous de-policisation and re-estheticisation of identity probes. Attempting just that, the freely distributed copies of The Islamic Millennium enhanced with a ‘we are reading you tags’ explicitly track the Bin Laden fans that dare to pick it up. These are now part of the uk branch of the distributed Library project distributed Library project
To bring home the point that rfid theory can be heavy indeed, Paul smith with Vicky Isley of boredomresearch showed the diagrams for their new work realsnailmail, that uses snails to perform the functions of an email server. The estimate that a snail would take 13.2 years to go from London to New York, makes it impractical to operate the system in the real world. Instead, snails with injectable pet idchips glued to their shells will be restricted to a transparent aquarium allowing for the live tracking of the slowest email delivery system. For a period of time, the email experience will have a phisicality of its own, with the creatures carrying the burden of the message.
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join me in documenting the possibilities of performance with urban adhoc rfid readers (arphids). the first arphield recordings –documenting the impromptu sound performance of people moving through the London tube access control gates were done in brixton, kings cross and caledonian road tube stations during march 2006 for the Tagged: A one-day RFID event when cds with the tracks and locational tags were distributed.
one way of participating is downloading the arphield recordings from http://odeo.com/channel/85358 and visiting the station gates with the sounds on a portable music player to experience a mix of live and prerecorded oyster beeps.
Another way of participating is by contributing arphield recordings from a tube station access control gate. you can do this by opening an odeo.com account and upload your recordings , tagging them as arphieldRecording followed by the number unique to your oyster card (as in arphieldRecordings-0503266130-03)
tagged
[ s p a c e ]7 – 21 OCT 2006
artists: C6 Boredomresearch Processing Plant Mute-Dialogue paula roush/msdm
[ s p a c e ] 129-131 Mare Street London E8 3RH Opening Times: Wed – Sat:…1 - 6pm
http://www.spacestudios.org.uk
Tagged presents five new works by artists working with RFID technology as part an ongoing project produced by [ s p a c e ] Media Arts. Standing for Radio Frequency Identification RFID can potentially function without your knowledge and with widespread functions across many commercial, public and governmental industries. All the artists in Tagged utilise electronic tagging technologies highlighting their increasing impact with society and their influence in shaping our day to day lives. .
Offsite Intervention: 7 Oct 3pm at Old Street tube station, with artist Paula Roush – bring your Oyster card to participate.
For more information Tagged :
Travel: Bus: 26 & 48 from Liverpool Street 106 & 254 from Bethnal Green 55 from Old Street Tube: Bethnal Green Train: Hackney Central Silverlink
e:exhibitions@spacestudios.org.uk
t:….0208 525 4330
Free Admission / Fully Accessible
EXHIBITION OPENING: Friday 6 Oct 6-9pm with a performance by Paula Roush
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