Surveillance Shoes

In praise of panel discussions… Sovereign Whores and Seditious Technology

“It’s in the interest of the city of Hamburg to make sure that its sex workers are protected.” … heels are incapacitating … but wait … there’s a fundamental power associated with height … spike heels are a tool of gender equity a tool of power … get Manolo on the phone right now!

Aside:  Massive multiplayer art work?

Thanks this morning to ArtFagCity without which, etc…

… I think is really great about the Eyebeam model is that they chose different reblogger every two weeks, thus ensuring a greater range of web surfing. Rhizome takes the superuser model (in other words they have staff rebloggers as opposed to rotating in guest rebloggers), which works well for them since their “superusers” actually live up to their titles, but no matter how good a reblogger is, you can become accustomed to their style and anticipate what they will post. In theory, the Eyebeam set up eliminates this problem, but they have been using the human tech-bot web surfer for some time now, so a little investigation into some new curatorial vision…

Aside:  Massive multiplayer networked music performance?

“Mass production is the lingua franca that tests the legibility of an idea… this project does have the social probe… the manufacturing pragmatics of shoe technology… we’ve seen a lot of tech introduced into shoes to service athletes and the military…” So hookers make sense, particularly in the area of stiletto heels, aren’t they just as deserving?

“It does test intimacy to share shoes…”

Aside:  Props to Purse Lips Square Jaw for sending me down this road via the rebloggers this morning…

“…with boots you could do so much.”

These are no ordinary shoes.

A compass and flashlight dangle from one shoelace. The pocket in the tongue is for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border region is printed on a removable insole.

They are red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag. On the back ankle, a drawing of Mexico’s patron saint of migrants.

On this side of the border, the shoes sit in art collections or the closets of well-heeled sneaker connoisseurs. On the other side, in Tijuana, it’s a utilitarian affair: Immigrants-to-be are happy to have the sturdy, lightweight shoes for the hike – or dash – into the United States.

Their designer is Judi Werthein, an Argentine artist who moved to New York in 1997 – legally, she notes.

Finally, Reblogging Reeboks…