October 11, 2007
“What does your wireless network landscape look like?” At RISD, the one wireless (RFID) necessity that seems to identify whether you are a student or not on this campus, is of course our ID card. Our digital identities are contained within the barcode of this piece of plastic that we carry around. Its main purpose is to give access into buildings and rooms that are secured for one reason or another. In order to understand what my everyday network landscape actually looks like in Providence, I decided to test out the limits of my RISD ID card to figure out the boundaries of my map. By attempting to go into every building on the official RISD map, I used the construct of an existing network to remap the accessibility of my ID card — testing not only where I can get into as graduate graphic design student, but also understanding how I am essentially identified within the RISD network. The results were both expected and surprising. I was denied entry into the dormitories and some studios in other disciplines, but to my surprise, I could in fact enter a lot of the buildings at RISD — many I have never even entered before nor should I even have access to? Perhaps our identities on a digital or wireless network as such is more fickle than it seems. ID cards are perhaps more of a security proper on the exterior; the information pertaining our accessibility within campus may change or not change depending on how we appear within the school’s overall larger system. {for D+M network landscapes}

“What does your wireless network landscape look like?”
At RISD, the one wireless (RFID) necessity that seems to identify whether you are a student or not on this campus, is of course our ID card. Our digital identities are contained within the barcode of this piece of plastic that we carry around. Its main purpose is to give access into buildings and rooms that are secured for one reason or another. In order to understand what my everyday network landscape actually looks like in Providence, I decided to test out the limits of my RISD ID card to figure out the boundaries of my map. By attempting to go into every building on the official RISD map, I used the construct of an existing network to remap the accessibility of my ID card — testing not only where I can get into as graduate graphic design student, but also understanding how I am essentially identified within the RISD network. The results were both expected and surprising. I was denied entry into the dormitories and some studios in other disciplines, but to my surprise, I could in fact enter a lot of the buildings at RISD — many I have never even entered before nor should I even have access to? Perhaps our identities on a digital or wireless network as such is more fickle than it seems. ID cards are perhaps more of a security proper on the exterior; the information pertaining our accessibility within campus may change or not change depending on how we appear within the school’s overall larger system.

{for D+M network landscapes}

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