Steve Mann essentially invented the field of "wearable computing" as a graduate student at MIT. What was viewed then as geeky--or Orwellian science fiction--has become commonplace. From Truman Story to Survivor to TRW, ubiquitous surveillance of our bodies, via cameras in physical space, and our data, via datamining in cyberspace, is standard operating procedure.

"SeatSale" imagines (predicts) a time when prosthetic augmentation is not just external--sight, touch, smell--it is also internal. As Mann puts it, when "wearables" become "implantables." What will a seat license, a standard method of measuring legal software users, be like then? "SeatSale" evokes such a scenario. Right now it merely provides seating. When a credit card slides through the slot to download a temporary seating license, spikes retract for (relatively) comfortable viewing of Mann's 1995 documentary ShootingBack (shot entirely with an "eyetap"--a wearable computing device--in his right eye). In the future, it may be just as necessary purchase a seat license for your memories, "captured" via your proprietary implantable. Or, as Mann suggests, "we could simply do away with the concept of intellectual property altogether."

http://wearcam.org/seatsale/index.htm
http://www.eyetap.org/seatsale/live/

"Seatsale" is produced with the assistance of Exitech Corporation, Canada, and University of Toronto, Canada.