reprage

The American sculptor, Tom Sachs runs his studio just like a space program. He’s conducted his own exploration missions of the Moon, Mars and Europa. Built a full-size Luna Exploration Module out of plywood and a 3-metre-tall space shuttle from foamcore. Tom doesn’t see his practice as NASA stagecraft, but rather an extension of NASA itself. He uses a NASA letterhead emblazed with ‘Sachs Research Laboratory’ and issues each staff member with NASA identification.

The identification passes issued by the Tom Sachs studio contain the following elements:

  • A passport style photo
  • The name of the bearer
  • A serial number
  • The date of issue
  • A collection of ‘patches’, including standard ones from his industrial films like ten bullets and color, plus an optional set based on major exhibitions. For example, if you worked on Nutsy’s, a line drawing of Unité was added to your identification.

When Tom is not referring to the ‘other’ NASA, he often talks about his studio being a teaching hospital for the arts. For several years now I have been a remote student of this school. Chipping away at my own projects and learning what I can about the wider art world over the Internet.

Inspired by keygens, the software used to generate licensing keys for pirated products, I made my own Tom Sachs FakeID generator. It has the following security features:

  • A passport style photo taken from your webcam.
  • A field to enter your name.
  • A unique serial number that is fully compatible with the Studio’s numbering system.
  • The date of issue.
  • The In-Situ Resource Utilization patch that Tom Sachs sent to those who participated in the workshop on geodesic dome construction.
  • A Sachs Family Crest rule for you to live by.
  • It carries the insignia intern, because I’m still working for the studio at the unpaid intern threshold. One day I’ll get to spend time working in the actual studio. Until then I will continue my work as an intern. I can do this from home in Australia.

You can generate your own Tom Sachs FakeID here. It won’t get you free entry to a show, But you can totally use it to buy booze from the JPL cafeteria.

Picture of an identification pass created by the Tom Sachs FakeID generator.