“Pop! Goes the Weasel” by Nancy Nisbet
Title:
- Pop! Goes the Weasel
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
Venue(s):
Artist Statement:
From closed circuit TV and video monitoring, email snooping software such as Carnivore, tracking through credit card usage and location mapping via GPS enabled cell phones; surveillance is omnipresent. It may not be the act of surveillance but rather the collection, storage and use of our ‘data identities’ in a centralized database that presents the greatest threat. Who will have access to the database, how will the data be used, how will people be protected from data profiling and marginalization?
“Pop! Goes the Weasel” is an interactive installation using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to track visitors/participants as they move through the installation. Identities are blurred as RFID tags are shared. The significance of the collected data is shifted as visitors repeatedly alter the database. A video projection containing the implantation of an RFID microchip into the artist’s hand and a visible real-time reflection of visitors being tracked accentuates uneasiness.
This installation aims to remind participants of the ubiquity of surveillance structures and to encourage visceral responses to potential future modes of surveillance. Visitors are given the opportunity to practice intervention in, and subversion and avoidance of RFID surveillance as possible forms of resistance.
