Fine Art Schools Explore RFID Tagging
Artists are using RFID tags for inspiration and embedding them in art pieces. The RFID industry, troubled by customer suspicion of the new bar code system, is welcoming.
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by Alex Russel
alex.russel@art-schools-search.com
Art Schools Search Columnist
Ever since Andy Warhol wowed the world with his Campbell’s Soup cans, artists have been including everyday items in their art work. The tradition continues with the controversial RFID tags.
Pop art made its name in the 1960’s when artists like Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Willem De Koonig, among others, began putting everyday images in high art headed for museums and galleries. Celebrity and kitsch had found their place in the hallowed halls of fine art.
Art School And Pop Art
Fine art school students have always responded well to this movement because it’s an effective way to connect their lived life to the refined fine art disciplines like sculpture and painting that require long training, study, and discipline.
New Pop Art Direction
According to Wired Magazine, this art school student flirtation with pop art continues with today’s latest trend: RFID tags.
RFID tags are the new bar code, except these barcodes are actually tiny objects inserted into shopping items that make the item trackable across the an international supply chain.
Privacy advocates are extremely displeased with RFID technology because it allows the technology holder to track a tagged item anywhere in the world (be it a cereal box, a car, or a person). The Department of Homeland Security for example, has begun RFID tagging vehicles that enter US territory from Mexico or Canada.
Artists Promoting RFID?
Scary stuff many say and inspiring stuff say some fine art school denizens.
For example, art school professor and writer Bruce Sterling creatively riffs on his blog on how manufactured and RFID tagged items of the future will begin having personalities just like humans.
Another artist, Meghan Trainor, has gone and RFID tagged herself as a performance piece that goes in conjunction with elaborate art pieces that are animated by RFID tagged gallery visitors. These fine art pieces are embedded with RFID tags.
“The idea of objects no longer being anonymous — that’s incredible to someone who makes objects,” the New York artist said in Wired.
RFIS Industry Welcoming Of Artists
The RFID industry is welcoming of these fine art school endeavors. RFID is controversial and executives hope by encouraging artists to play with the technology, some of that suspicion may subside.
“There is a lot of public aversion to RFID because of privacy issues,” said Paul Stam de Jonge, global RFID solutions director at LogicaCMG, a large European technology services company. “And anything that will bring to it a more positive attitude will be beneficial.”
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About the Author
Alex Russel is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, NY. Since graduating from Syracuse University he has worked at many different media companies in fields as diverse as film, TV, advertising, and journalism. He holds a dual bachelor’s degree in English and History.
Posted on September 25, 2006 at 12:33 PM
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