Tagged! Stolen things.
TAGGED! Stolen things. (Germany, July 2005) // The invasion of RFID technology into the everyday life is proceeding rapidly. While RFID is praised as an important profit promising innovation in the industry, privacy advocates demonize it as a threat for society and democracy. The public however, is not included into the discussion although private people might be affected most. Therefore this art installation aims to raise the awareness for RFID and to initiate the participation in the public debate. It offers a narrative approach in order to invite visitors to gain an own experience with RFID. The installation consists of a shelf and tagged everyday objects. Every object tells a story via a fictional software displayed on a screen integrated into the shelf. Visitors can find out that all objects have been stolen by a lady, who now proudly presents them as her “trophies”. Spending more time exploring them, conclusions can be drawn about her personality and her criminal career. Last but not least, the work strongly plays with irony as for decades RFID has been used for anti-theft purposes at retail.