December 11, 2004
It's about the art, stupid.

Steve Mann says it's not about Wearable Computing, but what you do with it. If you're not aware of his various artistic endeavors, check out this PDF, it really does a good job of summarizing his patterns of deconstruction in social hierarchies, and other technological memes.

'In my ShootingBack performance I explored [the unresponsiblity] phenomenon, by asking clerks at department stores, and the like, why they had placed me under video surveillance. Their typical response externalized the responsibility to some higher and unquestionable authority such as management. When I attempted to follow the chain of responsibility upwards, management indicated the directive was from head office, and head office argued video surveillance was just policy, or for insurance purposes or the like. Thus, there was no clear accountability for the situation. If an individual carried a handheld video camera around, videotaping clerks, casino operators, police officers, customs officials and the like, the individual might be regarded as strange, rude or otherwise acting in an inappropriate manner.'

And here's a picture of "SeatSale", an expiring licence to sit:

seat_and_server_smaller.jpg

[Existential Technology: Wearable
Computing Is Not the Real Issue!
, Steve Mann; Interrogative Art, Performances, Cultural Criticism, etc...]

Posted by nym at December 11, 2004 12:55 PM | TrackBack