Seeing the invisible
I was depressed from the second week of the MA. There were many reasons for this, and I am still learning more about it. But anyway, I was trying to focus on the things I most want to do, and I still am. Obviously they are not separate from the theme that we are dealing with in the course, but it’s not well connected with the assignments that the tutors want. I didn’t do many assignments, but I kept thinking, and even though the deadline has passed, I have found myself unable to finish or leave these things. So I want to record them here and go on to the next step. If I can, I will also record the process by my personal interest, or it can be connected with the projects in the course.
The first was ‘Seeing the invisible’. When I got this theme, I was not sure why I should do this or what the next step is. Anyway, the invisible I chose was the oyster card. The oyster card, launched on July 2003 by Transport for London (TfL), is a contactless smart card. I focused on three invisible things in the oyster card: chip, money and data.
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The oyster card uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that consists of a chip, a reader and an antenna. I could take the chip and antenna out of the oyster card and see that it still worked.
As money, it seemed fun that it is invisible. Money was an invisible concept, which turned into coins and bills and then became invisible again with the oyster card or any other form of credit card or virtual currency.
While using the oyster card, we have to provide data. Data here are not only the obvious information we provide, such as card ID, location, time, balance and so on, but they can also be a pattern or clues that reveal more about us and that actually affect us: life cycle, job, interests. And something is missing here in the fact that the data and the numbers aren’t me, even though they represent me in the data system.
