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| Work_Title |
Swipe |
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| Work_Artist |
Beatriz da Costa, Jamie Schulte, Brooke Singer |
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| Work_Date |
2002 |
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Swipe is a performance, installation and online toolkit that addresses current data-collection and use practices to promote understanding and debate. Swipe takes the act of capturing data from drivers’ licenses—a form of data-collection used by businesses and government alike—as a starting point. Bars and convenience stores were early adapters of license scanning technology for age and ID verification. These businesses, however, admit they reap huge benefits from this practice beyond catching underage drinkers and smokers with fake IDs. With one swipe—that often occurs without notification or consent by the cardholder—a business acquires data that can be used to build a valuable consumer database free of charge. Post 9/11, hospitals and airports are installing license readers in the name of security. And still others are joining the rush to scan, realizing the information is a potential gold mine. These detailed database records are also benefiting law enforcement officers who can now demand this kind of information without court order thanks to the U.S. Patriot Act.
Swipe illustrates how this information is used and why businesses and government crave it. Swipe is not only concerned with the individual ("That bar has a record of my name, address and drinking habits."), but also with understanding databases as a discursive, organizational practice and an essential technique of power in today's social field.
The Swipe Performance and Installation:
Situated in a real life activity, the Swipe performance directly confronts the public with today’s data-collection practices and gives people access to their own data image. The performance takes place at any event in which alcohol is served such as opening receptions, gala events and corporate functions. The stage for the Swipe performance is a customized, freestanding bar, which serves alcohol. The Swipe bar is a contemporary design stocked with standard bar equipment and goods, but also has additional unique features like an automated driver’s license scanner, LCD monitor and a hacked cash register that prints unusual receipts for its customers.
People who approach the bar in search of a refreshing drink will be asked by a bartender (Swipe member) to show a driver’s license for age verification. The bartender not only looks at the license, but also places it in an automatic, scanning device. While a bartender prepares the drink order, the Swipe cash register matches the driver’s license information with remote and local databases and runs a demographic analysis. Within minutes, a data “receipt” is ready and is delivered with drink to the customer.
The Swipe Toolkit:
The Swipe Toolkit is a collection of web-based tools that shed light on personal data collection and usage practices in the United States. The tools demonstrate the value of personal information on the open market and enable people to access information encoded on a driver's license or stored in some of the many commercial data warehouses. The toolkit also keeps track of the different kinds of information U.S. states and Canadian provinces encode on licenses, as well as maintaining up-to-date records as these policies change.
- Beatriz da Costa, Jamie Schulte, Brooke Singer, 2004
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| | Beatriz da Costa, Jamie Schulte, Brooke Singer | Swipe |
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