March 05, 2004

Parlor Trick

I’ve just acquired a container of Geneva Magview, which is basically a magnetic suspension in aerosol form. Spray it on the magnetic strip of a Metro fare card or a 3.5” disk exumed from its plastic housing and—violla—the pattern of bits or tracks is revealed. “Visibility itself is not a measure of inscription, modification of the substratum is”—so says Marcus Novak, and the Magview proves him right.

I’m going to do this during my talk tomorrow today.

Posted by mgk at March 5, 2004 01:13 AM
Comments

Nice. Wonder if this counts as a DMCA violation...

Posted by: Tim Jarrett at March 5, 2004 03:50 PM | Link to Comment

Only if I then use a piece of Scotch tape to lift off a record of the magnetic impressions. ;-)

Posted by: MGK at March 6, 2004 09:02 AM | Link to Comment

And now requesting a report on the parlour trick at the talk... was the audience as appreciative of the demonstration _in vivo_ as your blog readers are of the description you provided?

Posted by: Francois Lachance at March 9, 2004 04:53 PM | Link to Comment

I think it went over pretty well. A few of the other 'herders were there too, so you can ask them ;-) Turns out the DC Metro fare cards were the hardest to read; a NYC metro card, as well as a credit card, both had lower aerial densities and so were easier to make out. Next time I'll use my own credit card, whose aerial density after my recent eBay action is surely close to non-existent.

Posted by: MGK at March 9, 2004 10:06 PM | Link to Comment

For those that want to read and learn more, Matt was eloquent on "aerial density" see his October 2003 entry:

http://www.otal.umd.edu/~mgk/blog/archives/000186.html

It's an excerpt from from his book Mechanisms: "Grammatology of the Hard Drive"

I think his use of the term "aerial density" in the context of credit card swipes and online purchasing may make some marketers itch to launch campaigns inviting consumers to preserve their "aerial density" by shopping online. Which is I suspect not what Matt meant by refering to the "aerial density" of his account with the credit company through a metonymic reference his credit card. *wink*

Posted by: Francois Lachance at March 10, 2004 11:05 AM | Link to Comment

So you're going to show us this wonder in class, right? I'm sorry I missed the talk... turns out driving in the daytime sucks! Glad I don't usually live in the daytime.

Posted by: Jess at March 10, 2004 02:44 PM | Link to Comment
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