CLUBCARD
The art work by irational.org 'TM Clubcard - Earn Points
When You Surf' uses the medium of the internet in both it's
conception and execution. It does so whilst simultaneously
questioning the nature of information in the digital age and
rights of the individual in relation to it.
IRATIONAL.ORG press release:
Subject: J Sainsbury's plc Prosecutes Internet Artists.
PRESS RELEASE - July 1997
J Sainsbury's plc begins legal action against IRATIONAL.ORG
Internet Artists for copyright Infringement; Trademark
Infringement; Passing Off; and theft of corporate data.
J SAINSBURYS plc have issued a writ
http://www.irational.org/tm/archived/sainsbury/ demanding
that IRATIONAL.ORG hand over stolen personal data gathered
from individuals visiting a fake Sainsbury's web site
http://www.irational.org/tm/archived/sainsbury/index2.html.
This site is part of an ongoing art project called 'TM
Clubcard - Earn Points When You Surf'.
http://www.irational.org/tm/clubcard/ which redistributes
captured loyalty cards and corporate identities across the
internet and rewards visitors with 'points' when they surf
selected websites.
Trina Mould http://www.irational.org/tm/
This activity could be called corporation baiting. It
systematically targets multinationals, re-appropriates their
corporate identities, ridicules their secretive marketing
methods and flaunts the lawless and disruptive spirit of the
internet in their faces.
These actions and interventions are testing the tolerance
levels of multinational corporations on the internet and
reminds us the medium still operates in lawless spirit of
the Wild West.
This work is not merely parody or prank Ð humourous though
it often is Ð but it actually challenges the limits of
distribution of data and questions the control of our
personal information in the digital age.
This work questions our every day acceptance of the
information we give to corporations of our own free will -
often on a daily basis - in a supermarket; in a garage; but
more importantly it magnifies the crucial area of who owns
the information on individuals and what is actually done
with that information.
The documentation of ongoing litigation correspondence
showcased on the internet - is as much part of the work as
the original irational.org Sainsbury's web site which now
appears to be inaccessible Ð the battle ground has moved on.
To anyone who has been watching the actvities of
irational.org and "TM - Clubcard Earn Points When You Surf"
it seemed that any conflict would principally focus on the
copyright of a corporate logo and deception in the guise of
a false web site. Now that the conflict has become a legal
battle, it has now focused on the key issue; who owns this
personal information Ð given under free will? irational.org
or Sainsbury's?
Anyone who has used one of the irational.org 'customer
forms' would know by the very nature of their design and the
questions and options given, that one would not necessarily
enter accurate or even sensible information. In fact
sensible or rational information often seems to be
positively discouraged.
Thus the nature of the information in question is, in some
cases, totally nonsensical. I cannot vouch for other users -
but I know my own data would be of no use whatsoever to any
corporation in the world. Selections from the Sainsbury's
site include: Q: "Which is your favourite supermarket? The
pull down menu includes Tescos, Somerfield, Gateway , Kwik
Save and others with no mention of Sainsbury's at all. Under
the heading "personal pleasure" we are asked " Which do you
prefer?" Ð our only possible answers being either "sex" or
"shopping".
Although this work is international by virtue of the medium
it uses, the humour Ð intrinsic to the work Ð is very
British. The rivalry between these two British supermarkets
Ð Sainsbury's and Tescos Ð has a particular association for
people in Britain, and this humour is partly linked to
hierarchy, snobbery, and the class system. Deep down the
British people know their supermarkets are fiercely
demarcated along class lines, and to mention "Kwik Save" in
the same breath as "Sainsbury's" is almost sacrilige.
A web site created by a multi million pound corporation has
no real competetive advantage over a domestic user Ð with
the latter quite often being better.
The TM Clubcard project goes right to heart of the internet
itself. The 'TM- Clubcard' sites are registered with search
engines and the choice of words in the HTML 'document
source' gives a snapshot of the corporate terrain at the
heart of the battleground Ð running from A-Z with "instore
investment", "superplaza" "mall" "shopping" and
"authorization" out numbering the single reference to art.
This work is the antithesis of art in the 1980's which
embraced market values - personality, celebrity and profile
were often as important as the works themselves.
The 'TM Clubcard' project and the other irational.org works
celebrate anonymity and reject the idea of art as commodity.
In an art world which is a structured financial market place
- this work can never fit in, it is designed not to fit in.
It can never be 'art as investment' and therefore seriously
questions current art practice which accepts the art market
system as a starting point.
It's the first time it is possible to produce a global
profile on an equal basis to a multinational - with the
latest technologies being available to everyone at the same
time. This also applies to people who go out of their way to
question the dominance of multinational corporations on our
lives and set about to systematically disrupt it.
Q : How would you describe irational.org?
Artists? Subversives? Agent provocateurs? Pranksters?
Hackers? Freedom fighters? Cultural terrorists?
A: Yes.
We are have become oblivious to a creeping corporate
surveillance, packaged and presented to us as convenience.
This is a timely reminder. This project demands we check our
wallets and look at all our plastic cards.
Pete Gomes ICA New Technologies 1997