The opening of Database Imaginary at the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre is Saturday, November 13 at 7:00 pm (MST). Join us at the opening reception where drinks will be served as part of a performance by Swipe (Beatriz da Costa, Jamie Schulte and Brooke Singer).
Swipe is a project that addresses both current data-collection practices and the uses of data, in order to promote understanding and debate, through a performance, an installation and an online toolkit. 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 adopters 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. 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 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 drivers 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 drivers 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 drivers 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.
Swipe Beatriz Da Costa, Jamie Schulte and Brooke Singer each bring a variety of specializations, experiences and interdisciplinary interests to their collaborative practice. Da Costa's interests include robotics, bio-tech initiatives and surveillance projects. Her dedication to a participatory cultural practice represents one of the key components of her work. Da Costa recently joined the University of California at Irvine as an Assistant Professor in the new graduate program of Arts, Computation and Engineering. Schulte is an engineer who designs systems that engage human aesthetics, culture and politics. He has been a key collaborator in projects ranging from contestational robotics to video surveillance and interactive installations. Schulte is currently a robotics researcher at Stanford University. Singer is a digital media artist based in Brooklyn. She is Assistant Professor of New Media at the State University of New York, Purchase College.
The opening of