Fake ID

Do we netizens actually want to support the creation of fake identities? Helping the homeless get the welfare services they need is well and good, but enabling the bad guys to cross borders meant to keep them out–well, Daddy, that’s just wrong. In this era of people being other than what they appear or proclaim to be, I find it a little frightening that The Status Project is still online at irational.org. It was part of a triune “Rules of Crime” exhibit by British artists Kayle Brandon and Heath Bunting. The exhibit closed recently at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. Inliquid also carries some information about the projects.

In the October 27, 2004, New York Times [registration required] Elizabeth Bard pointed out the project’s potential for troublemaking. Her article was reproduced in part by Bruce Sterling on November 22, 2004, and appears in full without credit or citation on Bunting’s Web site. By facilitating an “alternative identity” such as one he created for himself, this project was designed “with the ultimate goal of allowing people to create a new identity from information collected on the Internet” Bard said.

See the fake ID and send comments to Georganna at Writer’s Edge.