Identity Bureau, transferable synthetic British natural person

While in Amsterdam last weekend, i went to see The Art of Hacking at the New Media Art Institute. The exhibition presents art projects that subvert, improve on or circumnavigate ‘official’ systems and practices and offer alternatives. I first thought of writing a report about the whole show but the work Identity Bureau ended up grabbing all my attention. That’s what happens when Heath Bunting has a project in a collective exhibition.

View of the exhibition space at the Nimk, Amsterdam

Identity Bureau builds upon The Status Project (2004-2008), an inquiry into the construction of our ‘official identity’, as a collection of data and how it influences the way we can move around in social space, the internet and private or governmental databases.

One day Heath Bunting realized that in the UK it is legal to have several identities, if they are not for criminal purposes.

He set up an ‘Identity Bureau’ to allow ordinary people to buy new, official and legal UK identities at reasonable cost (500 euros.) It might start with something as banal as a supermarket loyalty card and from there, a new identity builds up that gets more and more coherent. The identity is based both on intangible and tangible materials. Bunting hands the ready-to-use identity inside a suitcase where the buyer can find supermarket loyalty cards, transportation cards, a mobile phone number, letters sent by governmental departments to an address in the UK, etc. The identity also exists in a less tangible way as the new person is inserted inside a web of shopping, library or transportation cards, bills, government correspondence, and other “personal” data. The person also belongs to a network made of other people, organizations, and institutions. The new identity allows you to have a bank account, free health care and a social security number in the country.

Photo: Stefanie Grätz