Trickle Down, A new Vertical Sovereignty / Helen Knowles (GB)
This project is part of the CyberArts 2020 exhibition at the OK.
Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty is a tokenized four-screen video installation and generative soundscape attached to the blockchain, which explores value systems and wealth disparity. The artwork is composed of auction scenes, performances, and choral interludes by different communities such as prisoners, blockchain technology employees, market sellers, and Sotheby’s auction bidders. Knowles documented a series of auctions which reflect the breadth of wealth and financial power individuals in different communities have. These include prisoners at HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, Ethereal Summit attendees, employees at blockchain company ConsenSys in NY, Mancunians at Openshaw market, Manchester, and the Russian community in central London buying their cultural artefacts at Sotheby’s auction house. Knowles captured images of people from these communities bidding, through documenting their attire rather than identities, and made audio recordings of them singing and the sounds of their environments—ultimately, revealing the texture of these communities. The work draws on technological and financial power structures that traditionally scaffold the disparity between a wealthy elite and everyday working people but looks to re-imagine our vertically stacked digital ecosystem to horizontally distribute wealth.
For further information please visit:
calls.ars.electronica.art/prix2020/winners/2745/
Credit: vog.photo
Trickle Down, A new Vertical Sovereignty / Helen Knowles (GB)
This project is part of the CyberArts 2020 exhibition at the OK.
Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty is a tokenized four-screen video installation and generative soundscape attached to the blockchain, which explores value systems and wealth disparity. The artwork is composed of auction scenes, performances, and choral interludes by different communities such as prisoners, blockchain technology employees, market sellers, and Sotheby’s auction bidders. Knowles documented a series of auctions which reflect the breadth of wealth and financial power individuals in different communities have. These include prisoners at HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, Ethereal Summit attendees, employees at blockchain company ConsenSys in NY, Mancunians at Openshaw market, Manchester, and the Russian community in central London buying their cultural artefacts at Sotheby’s auction house. Knowles captured images of people from these communities bidding, through documenting their attire rather than identities, and made audio recordings of them singing and the sounds of their environments—ultimately, revealing the texture of these communities. The work draws on technological and financial power structures that traditionally scaffold the disparity between a wealthy elite and everyday working people but looks to re-imagine our vertically stacked digital ecosystem to horizontally distribute wealth.
For further information please visit:
calls.ars.electronica.art/prix2020/winners/2745/
Credit: vog.photo