EyeTap Personal Imaging Lab

SeatSale

More complete page at wearcam.org

Steve Mann, 2001 Feb. 7th

The opening was Wednesday Feb. 7th, at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), organized by Independent Curators International (ICI) of New York, and curated by Steve Dietz of walkerart.org (Walker Art Center) of Minneapolis

Here is the internet chair with magnetic stripe card reader and spikes that retract when a seating license is downloaded from a license server in response to input from the card reader incoroprated into the chair. The license server is in the 19 inch relay rack behind the internet chair.

The text on the scrolling LED sign mounted to the back of the chair reads:
WEARY TRAVELLERS NO LONGER NEED TO STAND FOR HOURS ON END... USE YOUR GOVERNMENT ISSUED PHOTO ID CARD TO DOWNLOAD A FREE SEATING LICENSE.

Across from the internet chair (pictured at left) is a VGA television display on a TV stand (pictured at right), which displays the following message:

Swipe credit card or government issued
photo ID card to download a FREE Seating
License.

Your card is for identification
purposes only. The seating is FREE!!!

By swiping your card, you agree to be
bound by our Terms and Conditions.

Your swipe indicates your agreement to
these Terms and Conditions of use.

If you do not agree to our Terms and
Conditions, remain standing and do not
swipe your card through the card reader!

When a credit card or ID card is swiped, the following displays:

________________________________________
Thank you for agreeing to our Terms and
Conditions of use.
________________________________________

(spikes retract)

Enjoy Quality of Seating Services (TM)
Middleware and QoS Provisioning.

(a short movie plays)

After some time (e.g. after the movie has finished) a bright flashing animated version of the following is displayed:

then the following message is displayed while an extremely loud bank of 60 Hz warning buzzers is sounded throughout the exhibit space:

Your Seating License will expire in 4 seconds
Please swipe your credit card or
contact the SeatWorks to renew your license
    
WARNING: Your Seating License will
expire in 3 seconds!
Please get off the chair!
contact the SeatWorks to renew your license.

License Expired

(spikes unretract)

Here is the background poster installed behind exhibit:

which provides the philosophical background, including some real world examples of seat licenses.

Keep a watchful eye on our infrared security cameras to help us prevent theft of Seating Services (TM), and to prevent the smuggling of contraband (pillows, boards, and other tools of license circumvention), into the museum space.

Installation instructions for seatsale

Link to San Francisco Art Institute site curated by Steve Dietz through Independent Curators International (ICI) of New York.

archive of setup pictures from the www.monkeyview.net site.

See a 1998 exhibit (the opening date was June 1, which corresponded with my Keynote Address at the Virtual Reality conference in Rio de Janeiro) which also used a magnetic stripe card reader.

Here is a list of clients who were the first to download free seating licenses during the opening of the exhibit. (Credit card numbers, driver's license numbers, etc., have been replaced by minus sign "dashes".)

link to main eyetap.org site

link to main wearcam.org site