Art 36 Basel - RFID - No Borders for Art / We are not the CIA

[Messe Schweiz]

*
Art 36 Basel is making broad use of RFID tags to convey information 
about the individual pieces to visitors and to collect and distribute 
personal information about visitors and potential customers. At Art 36 
Basel, all Dealers can monitor their data immediately in real-time via 
the Internet (amount of visitors to their gallery, sales of their 
gallery and other galleries, etc.).

"Art 36 Basel wants to be a "test bed" for RFID  trials involving 
"consumers". RFID is fine for fine art objects, but not for people. We 
are not the CIA" Samuel Keller, Director Art Basel

For Art 36 Basel DELL, SAPAGO, BMW, UBS, BVLGARI, UBERMORGEN.COM, SWISS 
are providing the necessary funding, infrastructure and the credibility 
for this revolutionary art, cultural affirmation & technlogy project. *

Using the Art-FID system from Sapago, the RFIDs (Radio Frequency 
Identification) are attached to the art works, and visitors use a 
pen-shaped tag reader in combination with a Dell Axim handheld to read a 
piece's unique ID number and call up its information.

While this would be a convenient system on its own in that ars gratia 
ars sort of way, let's remember the business end of art and realize 
there's an ulterior motive here - gallery owners hope to convert more 
visitors into customers by removing the often uncomfortable act of 
having to ask curators or staff about pricing.

Additionally a dynamic pricing system can be established, customized 
prices for the buyers depending on the financial situation and the 
buying power of the client. So visually spoken, the client walks through 
the exhibition and the prices will change only for his eyes, customized 
to his financial capabilities.

Globally spoken, RFID technology is gaining momentum, enabling galleries 
and museums to track assets and view supply-chain information from data 
transmitted via radio waves from antennas on  chips affixed to artworks.

With this project, Art 36 Basel also aims to bring an experience of new 
digital art (media art, net.art) to the art fair and to the galleries, 
collectors and it's visitors. Again the avantgarde of digital art 
[UBERMORGEN.COM] is used as a testing facility and the net.art scene is 
used as ground-breaker for this technology. The idea is to use the art 
community to soft launch consumer critical RFID activities and sedate 
public awarness.

It's time to ask Art Basel if there's a tag in your bag.



Art Basel Media Information is available under:

Art Basel, Communication, Peter Vetsch, Marlen Melone oder
Nathalie Riggenbach, CH-4005 Basel, Tel. +41 58 200 20 20,
Fax +41 58 206 31 30, info at ArtBasel.com, www.ArtBasel.com


For digital avantgarde, negative affirmation & media hacking contact:

UBERMORGEN.COM, Hans Bernhard, lizvlx
+43 650 930 00 61, officeR at ubermorgen.com, www.ubermorgen.com




Related Events

*special guest Liste 05*
UBERMORGEN.COM [Plug.in]
Warteck, Burgweg 15, Basel
June 14th through June 19th
"[F]originals - Authenticity as consensual hallucination
ART FID - RFID"

*Exhibition *
"[F]originals - Authenticity as consensual hallucination"
BANKSTATEMENTGENERATOR
http://www.ipnic.org/BANKSTATEMENTGENERATOR
[Plug.in] Media Gallery
St. Alban-Rheinweg 64, 4052 Basel
June 10th through July 3rd

*Panel*
"A radical net.art project and it's desire for the art market"
[Plug.in], St. Alban-Rheinweg 64, 4052 Basel
June 17th 2005, 12am
with Hans Bernhard and lizvlx [UBERMORGEN.COM]
Inke Arns (artistic director hartware Dortmund)
Jacob Lillemose (critic/curator Artnode, Copenhagen)
and Susanne Ackers ([plug.in]/Hartware)

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