Comments on: GPS platform shoes for street hos

GPS platform shoes for street hos

Burhanistan — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:41:53 -0800

: both an homage to Aphrodite and her prostitute-priestesses as well as a practical tool for the contemporary sex worker. Or, GPS platform shoes for street hos. Check the demo.

By: Avenger

Avenger — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:56:46 -0800

- It’s not just for help -- you can also use the GPS system to locate your friends and co-workers. Plus, the GPS system can be used by your Pimp to track you the fuck down and beat the living shit out of you for not meeting your hourly quota. Please, for the love of god, tell me this is a joke.

By: c13

c13 — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:00:01 -0800

I can see how these things will be useful for a pimp to track his ho's, but displaying "promotional messages" on a tiny LCD is kinda stupid.

By: c13

c13 — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:00:23 -0800

heh...

By: Orb2069

Orb2069 — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:04:20 -0800

... Do GPS recievers nowadays pick up well inside of cars/houses/dumpsters? The one I have is pretty blind without a clear line-of-sight to the sky.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:22:17 -0800

I don't know any hookers, as far as I know - the closest I come is knowing one lady who strips, another who I hear used to, back in the day, and having vaguely worked with one lady who's supposed to be a decently well-known softcore porn star, but I really feel like the people who came up with this are even more disconnected from the "sex industry."

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:26:40 -0800

it's an art project not a commecial venture!

By: jayder

jayder — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 00:02:48 -0800

With the press of a button, you can send an emergency signal to sex workers rights groups and/or the police with your location. I'm really curious to know --- what cities are blessed with on-call sex workers rights groups, manning receivers around the clock, ready to rush to the aid of a distressed sex worker on a moment's notice?

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 01:25:10 -0800

I don't know about Wellington, where I've just moved, but when I lived in Auckland, the local prostitutes' collective maintained an office on Karangahape Road, the centre of the local red-light area. Given an appropriate legal environment prostitutes can organise, and I bet do better for themselves than do-gooders from outside.

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 04:32:56 -0800

Your asking a woman to wear the same pair of shoes all the time? lol You could implement the safety aspect using only free software if your mobile phone had GPS. I can see young girls enjoying merely the screen aspect, plus they don't have so many shoes. In fact that'd be the ultimaate prank on middle class America : Your daughters all want Aphrodite shoes for street walker. lol

By: MtDewd

MtDewd — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 04:40:21 -0800

Do they have to tell everybody that there's a hidden compartment where your cash is? In case you were wondering about the word that zips by at the beginning (and I certainly was) - it's Ακολουθω (to follow).

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 05:47:36 -0800

Actually, Ακολουθω means 'I follow.' And they had the wrong accent on the final vowel (a rough breathing instead of the correct circumflex). And it should have said ΑΚΟΛΟΥΘΙ 'follow (me)!' (with all caps because the ancient Greeks didn't have lower case letters). Also, it's a "multi-media artwork," not a consumer product.

By: bruce

bruce — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 07:13:10 -0800

no officer, she isn't a hooker, she's a priestess of aphrodite!

By: nax

nax — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:30:31 -0800

S.W.E.A.T. Best. Acronym. Ever. Especially since apparently, it's real.

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 09:50:36 -0800

Plus, the GPS system can be used by your Pimp to track you the fuck down and beat the living shit out of you for not meeting your hourly quota. Since GPS is one way time-coded system, you can't actually "track" anyone using it - only receive your own location. Now if this thing connected to a cell network, that's a different story.

By: veronica sawyer

veronica sawyer — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 10:30:18 -0800

The purpose of the project seems to be all over the place: Platforms is designed to question moral attitudes and value judgments, especially with this marginalized section of the population...What are the ethics of surveillance and tracking?...Is it ever possible to guarantee that knowledge will stay within the hands of those who it is intended for? How about some statistical background here: Chances are, if you're a "street ho," as you put it, you're of a marginalized background or addicted to drugs, which means that you're underprotected by law enforcement to begin with. The fact of the matter is that street prostitutes have the highest homicide victimization rate of any set of women ever studied and are almost 18 times more likely to be murdered than women of similar age and race. And street prostitutes are way more likely than the general population to be murdered by a serial killer. But since we like to glamorize pimps and watch bullshit spectacles like this, I don't think the general American public is anywhere close to actually, like, caring about the safety of prostitutes.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 10:35:06 -0800

Ok, all you noble wanna be social activists...it's an art project. It's not really real. Well, it is "real", but it isn't real. Jeez.

By: veronica sawyer

veronica sawyer — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:05:02 -0800

Yes, it is an art project. And it's meant to raise awareness of the sex work industry. And I offered some background of the industry. And until you've known someone who's been murdered by a john, it'd be cool to hold off on labeling others wannabes. Didn't mean to detract from your highly conceptual post.

By: bruce

bruce — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:17:38 -0800

it's an art project which, according to the site, is partially funded by the new york state council of the arts (i.e., the tax money of new yorkers). how do the new yorkers on here feel about paying taxes in order to create ho clothes with gps systems? if this happened in oregon, somebody would end up losing their job.

By: jason's_planet

jason's_planet — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:40:39 -0800

how do the new yorkers on here feel about paying taxes in order to create ho clothes with gps systems? if this happened in oregon, somebody would end up losing their job. *shrugs* It's New York. People have done worse.

By: Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson

Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 21:38:10 -0800

Don't sex workers take their shoes off to have sex?

By: blacklite

blacklite — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 02:59:24 -0800

if this happened in oregon, somebody would end up losing their job. oh, come on. you underestimate the portland art scene. also you need to unclench about your tax money. i am sure it is less than a hundredth of a penny of the average new yorker's money that has gone into this thing.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:37:54 -0800

veronica sawyer: my apologies.

By: qcubed

qcubed — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 08:43:37 -0800

Those shoes... are ugly.