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Several years ago I was involved in an ambitious, top-secret project for Weyland-Yutani concerning RFID (radio frequency identification), the technology that uses embedded radio transponders as a kind of universal, invisible barcode system for people, places and manufactured items. RFID has since come under severe scrutiny for various health and privacy concerns, but back in those days we didn't sweat such small details. That's the fun of working in theoretical R&D for a ruthless technology firm.
I've since moved on, but have kept an eye of this area, mostly for some of the strange and cool aesthetic detours of RFID. Along with mobile computing and GPS (global positioning system) technologies, RFID is a key component of the nascent field of locative media, and its high-culture offshoot, locative art.
 Locative media refers to digital media that is location-dependent, and therefore tied to a real-world locale. Combined with augmented reality, which has to do with virtual reality overlaying regular reality, locative art becomes a truly mind-bending new form. Let's say you have a virtual sculpture whose mathematical dimensions are being broadcast from a Wi-Fi transmitter at a very specific set of GPS coordinates. With the right coordinates, software and equipment -- laptop, virtual-reality helmet, what-have-you -- viewers can visit the site and "see" that sculpture in the context of the actual location. The sculpture isn't really there, of course, except that it is very specifically there. Or, in the spirit of the rhetorical question: If the sculpture isn't there, where is it?
Locative art suggests a future in which artists will create virtual works, specifically placed at GPS coordinates to overlay our regular, pedestrian reality. There could potentially exist millions of different "channels" -- different worlds, even -- which one could choose to perceive at any time. William Gibson's latest novel gets into this a bit, and it's all very fascinating if you look at it the right way.
On the other hand, it will probably just mean more advertising. I am always amazed at the efficeincy with which the ad industry subsumes new communication vectors. Coca-Cola probably already has a whole division on it.
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