Output details

The Premediation of Identity Management in Art and Design : New Model Cyborgs – Organic & Digital

This first report from Wilson’s IMprints - EPSRC funded research (£1.9m) that identifies the scenarios of identity management found in art & design initiatives since 2004. Partners in this research include; Communications & Media, Loughborough University; Psychology, Northumbria University; Political Science, University of Essex; and Pacific Northwest Labs, preferred partner of US Homeland Securities. In particular this research addresses the way in which future identity management scenarios in art & design are ‘premediated’ ensuring that the future arises from the present and will not come as a shock or surprise. This process of premediation also ensures that any potential taboos are effectively managed to emerge as desirable options. Wilson was invited by one of the special journal editors to submit this article as our Imprints: Public Responses to future identity management practices and technologies is ultimately concerned with identifying the taboos and desires of identity management and so consequently our research is a very close fit with this special issue call. This paper is a further development from an earlier project paper summarising identity management scenarios. Within this research Wilson has been responsible for the art & design contribution and for organising the International hackJam Design Competition, cultural probes with professional women and a series of Delphi interviews.

IMprints is only one of three projects nationally conducting research in this area of identity management. There is an important UK/US societal agenda in relation to identity management technologies, services and practices, set against a background of civil liberties. IMprints research explores the desire to embrace social networking and loyalty schemes against the concern with biometrics and the volumes of data held about us online. The outputs from our research are of interest to the areas of art & design practice, wearable computing and the burgeoning biometrics industry.