Summer time – August 16, 2005 – As I was reading (and writing for my thesis) on augmented bodies – William J. Mitchell, Me++, The Cyborg Self and the Networked City (MIT press, 2003) – I thought of getting a 2D code tattoo – though a washable one, for that I don’t like things permanent – or let’s say it differently – I accept that things have an expiration date – that death is part of life. That is true (ecological) neo-nomadism btw.

That is the vignette (with a text) I had produced to illustrate the concept:

project number . 20050816
project title . shotcode tattoo
medium . ink or washable tattoo
my identity has shrunk to my skin…
<< I link therefore I am >> says WJM
my tattoo is no more a barcode that one scans
for revealing the identity of a product
the extension of my body is a url
we exist because of the envelope, the image
which is drawn, written, or projected onto it
our skin is a state of mind, a habitat, and our identity
the last private space?
my body is a hypertext

On August 23, 2005, I received the email below:

My name is [x] and I’m the founder / CEO of [x] / ShotCode.

I loved your blog entry and I just wanted to let you know how close to home it hit for me.

In the coming month I will tattoo a ShotCode on my chest. It’ll be a ShotCode that I can point to any type of content that I want. We’ll make a little movie of it to prove that it’s an actual tattoo and not a stick on or penned shape.

And then again on the same day after I had answered:

I’ve had the ShotCode drawn on my chest to test if it works and it does. The next step is the actual tattooing which I’ll have done in [x] (a city in Sweden) [etc.]

Anyway, I had also been forwarded another link… Here you will find the newest way to pick-up a Japanese Babe! Or when bodies become blunt commodities.

Nowadays, my reflection on augmented bodies (And what this has to do with space) has evolved – especially in light of the Arab Spring. Neo-nomads are bio-political agents – More about this concept in the book: Néo-nomadisme.

Actually pushing the #hyperbody project further (Paris is so intellectually stimulating). Stay tuned. It is coming very soon.