poster

what do we get out of what we put into the blueberry i-box

tracking virtual identity
Nancy Nisbet* The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada nnisbet@interchange.ubc.ca

Abstract
New technologies are shifting the nature of how identity is understood. A wide range of information is being put into computers on a daily basis. This project endeavours to illuminate some of the embodied effects coming out of this human relationship to technology. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) will be used to track virtual identities and store their associated data. The model of recessive inheritance and the concept of the 'meme' will be applied to the data to expose hidden (recessive) effects emerging out of our interaction with computers. Issues of surveillance, gender, work and play, all specifically relating to new technology, are also addressed in this project. Keywords : Radio Frequency Identification, Microchip, Meme, Surveillance, Gender, Art Year the Work was created: 2001 on-going

Introduction
It is in the transitions, the multiple and rapid shifts between physical and virtual identities, that barely perceptible shifts in embodied and virtual behaviour emerge. I am looking for cracks in this shifting where a potentially latent virtuality leaks into the real. The cast01 conference will mark the launch and announcement of a new art work in progress that uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and communications technology to survey identity when the boundaries between the physical and the virtual blur. Using implantable microchips I will extend and redirect this electronic link between physical and virtual identities. Rather than tracking the movements of my physical body in the world, the chips will track my travels in virtual spaces. Information and communication technologies are ubiquitous in many peoples' daily lives. We program our video recorders, use automated bank machines, shop on-line, play games, e-mail friends, experiment with identities, and manipulate and store data. Huge amounts of time, effort and information are going into computers every day. I am interested in what comes out of what is being put into these digital boxes. Some of the more obvious shifts emerging from our associations with these technologies are connections between people over distance, partial separation of identity from the physical body, and increasing access to information. What subtle or hidden effects do these shifts have on embodied identity and behaviour?

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2. Aims of Research
Richard Dawkins has introduced the concept of the 'meme' [1] as a unit of cultural heredity similar to the gene, the basic unit of genetic inheritance. As there are recessive genes, perhaps there are recessive memes. A significant attribute of recessive elements is that they are hidden and remain hidden until they are (as with the biological analogy) (com)paired with another recessive unit. The first objective of this project is to generate sets of data which will then be analysed (recombined) to increase the chance of juxtaposing these otherwise hidden units. (Fig. 1)

Shortly before the conference a microchip will be injected into each of my hands. (Fig. 2) Since each chip has a unique ID number, the use of two chips will not only enable a switching mechanism with which any number of identities could be represented, but also subverts the notion of these chips being unique markers of identity which chip is the authentic marker?

Figure 2 Proposed Injection Site

A computer mouse will be re-engineered to function both as a mouse and as a chip reader capable of scanning the implanted chips. (Fig. 3) Figure 3 Proposed mouse/scanner
Figure 1 Model of Genetic Inheritance

Surveillance of people, in a myriad of forms, is on the rise and widespread use of tracking technology may be on the horizon. Implantable microchips are already available to selective high profile consumers [2]. Although there are benefits in the use of this technolgy, the threat of mandatory implantation in humans and the potential infringement of privacy and other legal rights is cause for concern [3]. The second objective of this project is to further question issues of identity and control. By consciously appropriating this technology I will be able to gain an understanding of its limits and failures while retaining control of what information is gathered and how it is used. Subjection of my body to this technical invasion and cultural coding is not to be overlooked. Historically, women's connection to technology has not been one of liberation or empowerment, but rather one of control and improved efficiency [4]. In this project I am not becoming a passive subject of others, but remain empowered and pro-active in the representation and interpretation of my identity(ies). The third objective of this project is to play with this tracking technology; to observe my-selves and to formally give voice and physicality to my virtual identities.

Microchip scanner inside the mouse

Software will be designed to record and store, at the click of the mouse, the chip ID and information such as the URL, sound, image, and text files, the date and time, and the frequency of visiting a particular URL. (fig 4)

3. Project Description
Radio Frequency Identification employs a passive electronic microchip which is able to use a low radio frequency signal (energy generated by the scanner) to transmit its ID code back to the scanner [5]. In 1997 Eduardo Kac injected a similar microchip into his ankle and registered himself in an animal identification database in an intriguing piece called "Time Capsule [6]. The implantation of microchips in my body is similar to the spectacle of Kacs work. Where he paused, I will push further. I will repeatedly engage my body in dialog with the technology. Rather than submit to an externally controlled database, I will also create, control access to, and use the information that is gathered.

Figure 4 Sample Tracking Data

The choice of my hand for injection of the microchips is for both practical and symbolic reasons. Practically, hands are still the usual biological interface with computers. The hand is the bodys connection with the technical, an extension of the body used to probe. The use of fingerprints by the authorities to identify individuals is still extensively used and accepted as evidence of a particular persons presence at a given physical location. Symbolically then, the electronic ID chips embedded in my hand will heighten the connection between my virtual identity(ies) and my biological/physical identity. After the technical components have been established, the initial phase of the project will be to track two simplistic forms of my identity, that associated with work and that with

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play. As I use my computer clicking of the mouse will trigger the scanner to read the chip located in the hand using the mouse. The chip ID and the other information identified within the designed software will then be automatically retrieved and stored in a database. The data collected from these two categories will be superimposed in such a way that the data serves to filter itself. By looking for continuity and discontinuity, similarity and difference, repetition and omission, it will be possible to sift through the noise thereby amplifying the interesting details hidden within the data. Throughout this project I will be considering how best to transform the data and insights into visual art. I do not consider the database generated in this project to be the art, but rather it serves at the raw material with which I will work and play to create artwork.

4. Conclusion
With the use of identification microchips and collection of virtual tracking data this project seeks to investigate the intersections of embodied and virtual identities. Ideally this work will do three things. Firstly it will reveal the more subtle influences of surveillance and communication technologies on how we perceive and define shifting identities within a networked society. Secondly it will further engage us in discussion of the paradoxically threatening and beneficial uses of microchips. Finally it will engage gender issues specifically relating to women's relationship to new technologies in a playful, empowering and electronic way.

5. References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, New York, Oxford University Press, 1989. Bruce Johnson, Microchip Implants to Foil VIP Kidnappings, Electronc Telegraph, Issue 1229, 1998 http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1998/10/ msg0026 9.html Elaine M. Ramesh, Time Enough? Consequences of Human Microchip Implantation, Risk, Vol. 8, Franklin Pierce Law Center, Concord, NH, 1997 http://www.fplc.edu/risk/vol8/fall/ramesh.htm Faith Wilding, and Critical Art Ensemble, Notes on the Political Condition of Cyberfeminism, http://www.obn.org/cfundef/condition.html DestronFearing, Electronic ID

[6] [7] [8] [9]

[10] http://www.destronfearing.com/elect/elect.html [11] Eduardo Kac, Time Capsule, 1997, [12] http://www.ekac.org/timec.html

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