Lasse Scherffig

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I am a media artist and researcher with a background in cognitive science and computer science. I teach Art and Technology at San Francisco Art Institute, am part of the artist group Paidia Institute and have published research and shown art in diverse contexts. I am interested in Cybernetics and the aesthetics and cultures of computation and interaction.

Exhibiting

Where have you been?

“Where have you been?” is an experiment investigating the personal data leaked by networked mobile phones, questioning assumptions of privacy and anonymity. It consists of a projection displaying seemingly random scenes from Google StreetView. These scenes, however, depict places members of the audience have visited in the past: a frequently used airport, a favorite café, or the own front yard.

This information is harvested from the mobile devices entering the exhibition space, which search for available WiFis and by that reveal the networks they were connected to before. “Where have you been?” tries to link these networks to possible geographic origins, using WiFi location data collected by a wardriving community. It is based on passive WiFi tracking – a simple surveillance technique that is employed by government agencies and advertisers alike – and it relies on data from a public counterpart to the private location information inside the databases used by Google and Apple.