To the front page

11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

2006 Archive

2005 Archive

Electronics in your clothes as means of expression

21 March 2008 - At a Mediamatic master class, artists are going to explore how communication technology integrated in clothes and accessories can be used as a means of expression. The technology can be used for Big Brother purposes as well, but here users will be in control.

At the master class, electronics specifically designed for use in textiles will be used. The material is small and it looks good. It can even be hand-washed, provided the batteries are removed, explains Deborah Meibergen of Mediamatic.

Participants in a previous workshop on the topic made a cat bag that will purr when stroked, with LEDs lighting up as mock eyes. They also made a shirt that determines the mood of the wearer. Subsequently, the shirt lights up the pressure points which - according to Chinese ideas on acupuncture - need to be pressed to sooth the wearer.

“Clothes are not just a protection against the cold, they are also a means to express ourselves”, says Klaas Kuitenbrouwer of Mediamatic. “Therefore, they provide a natural home for means of communication”.

Among the tools available to participants in the master class will be RFID chips, from which data can be read from a distance. Such chips are used by companies such as retail giant Wal-Mart to track products for distribution and marketing purposes.

At the Legoland amusement park in Denmark, small children get to wear a bracelet containing an RFID chip. Parents who want to locate lost children can have a text message with their children’s location sent to their cell phone.

Critics warn that RFID chips may be used for ‘Big Brother’ purposes. For example, the organisation operating the new Dutch public transport chip cards will have access to detailed personal travel information.

This is child’s play compared to the ID cards introduced in the Chinese city of Shenzen. These cards contain a chip with the bearer’s name and address, but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and - intriguingly - the landlord’s phone number. In view of China’s ‘one child policy’, ‘personal reproductive history’ is also included.

Kuitenbrouwer acknowledges that RFID chips can be used for dubious purposes, but says the technology in itself is not the problem. What matters is how it is used: who gets ‘tagged’, what information will be linked to the tag and who gets access to that information. The chips used by Mediamatic can only be read from a short distance and the bearer is in control of the information the chip will be linked to.

If one so wishes, RFID technology can also be used for rebellious means. In an article, Kuitenbrouwer describes how activists released cockroaches equipped with RFID chips in Wal-Mart stores in order to create chaos in the company’s databases.

Image: cat bag (photo Mediamatic). Mediamatic master class, Kuitenbrouwer article (pdf; in Dutch), Shenzen

Want to receive News from Amsterdam? Click here