[spectre] Fw: [faces] Shu Lea Cheang's latest project "St(r)eaming the fields" launches this weekend

[Sally Jane NORMAN]

----- Original Message -----
From: "cristine_org" <cristine_org@yahoo.com>
To: <faces-l@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2002 1:13 AM
Subject: [faces] Shu Lea Cheang's latest project "St(r)eaming the fields"
launches this weekend


>
> [Shu Lea Cheang's latest project "St(r)eaming the fields" launches
> this weekend
> July 27-Aug 4, 2002 in New York
>

> Phase 1: Harvesting Garlic Investing media
> July 27-August 4, 2002
> Friends of the media and green fields are invited to harvest the
> massive 5th-generation garlic crops at Andes. A day of harvesting
> brings together a labour head (mentor) and 2 labours (respondents) in
> digging up garlic and updating the current media production. Infusing
> old and new ideas, the green encounter with hands covered in dirt and
> thoughts floating in the air is documented as streaming data. The
> green field is an open space, we welcome friends to come by and join
> us for harvest fiesta. We serve steaming vegetable and garlic plus
> fish caught in the nearby streams. The garlic cloves collected are
> dried and stored for on-off-line trading in the following months.
>
> http://www.rich-air.com
>
> St(r)eaming the fields, 2002 -- a field harvesting and public network
> project
> conceived by Shu Lea Cheang
> with "Challenge to the Field" Award from Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund
> for Independent Media.
>
> Background info:
> The green field in Andes, New York will be harvesting 3000 garlic
> plants by the end of July this summer. The garlic crops cultivated by
> organic farmer Tovey Halleck have gone through generations of growth.
> Each year, Tovey harvests the garlic field, sells some and plants the
> rest. One plant of garlic can yield up to 10 cloves, each made up of
> 10 bulbs. Each bulb can be re-seeded. Over the years, Tovey's garlic
> has fertilized the land and multiplied .
>
> Generations of independent media makers have collectively developed a
> vibrant media field. As we speculate on a post-capitalist, post-arts
> funding, "after the crash" scenario, "St(r)eaming the fields" calls
> for the media field to converge at the green field for trans-
> generational recharging affairs. Borrowing from Argentina's "El club
> del Trueque" (Club of Exchange) that advocates parallel economy
> reciprocity practices, we hope to realize a media exchange network
> using organic garlic as alternative social currency, the 'credito'.
> Using garlic credito to exchange material goods and immaterial
> digital bytes, we hope to stimulate media trafficking on the net and
> sponsor green marketing on the streets.
>
> "St(r)eaming the fields" project will be held in 4 phases in year
> 2002.
>
> Phase 2: Garlic=rich air <http://www.rich-air.com>
> September 1-September 30, 2002 --- ongoing
> After the crash (of dot com, of market economy, of twin towers, of
> public funding), garlic is ordained as valuable assets for the future
> generations of independent media makers. Serving as 'credito' for
> global shared network, garlic is traded for airwaves, for bandwidth,
> for pixels and bytes. A website is set up that allows the media
> makers to join Trueque club where actual and virtual goods and
> service are listed for exchange. Through the trading with garlic
> credito, we provide the media field an alternative distribution
> outlet, stimulate organic media growth and encourage mutual ownership
> of digital commons. Each sign up media maker in Trueque club is given
> Ticket Trueque and 10 virtual garlic as assets, a heatmap, color
> schemes profile, traces the trading activities of each participant.
> By offering digital bytes for trading and acquiring other makers'
> bytes, the garlic credito is accumulated or decreased. By the end of
> September, the virtual garlic credito can be exchanged for edible
> garlic when we enter phase 3 of the project.
>
> Phase 3: Trading garlic for wireless
> September 27-28-29, 2002
> Scattered in the small towns throughout Argentina are local Trueque
> clubs, each with its own established credito for local exchange.
> Promoting regional self-sufficiency, the many Trueque clubs provide
> the economic alternative to the failed Peso currency in Argentina.
>
> In London's East End, DIY wireless rooftop networks - based on radio
> links and the 802.11b protocol, are set up by groups of hackers,
> artists, activists and cultural workers. In the Bay area , Bay Area
> Wireless User Group (BAWUG) and S.F. wireless; in New York,
> NYCwireless, are busy setting up community network nodes all over the
> city blocks; Committed to share and consume bandwidth together, the
> new global/local communities based on free/autonomous networks can
> possibly bring about social internet revolution. Much like the
> vegetable stands set up by country farmers on the roadsides, wireless
> nodes at the street corners in the cities are our 'networking' stands
> toward building sustainable organic internet in the 'after the crash'
> scenario.
>
> After the harvest, the garlic is dried and stored for late September
> trading and distribution on the streets of New York City and at the
> farm stands in Andes. We will construct a flat truck loaded with
> garlic and park at designated street corners with wireless nodes set
> up for net access. Temporarily claiming a public space for garlic
> congregation, we trade edible garlic for wireless network. With
> mobile techonology, we stream and showcase the harvest documents and
> trading activity on the streets. Taking garlic credito one
> accumulated through trading on rich-air.com, one trades the virtual
> credito for edible garlic. On the streets, the truckload of garlic
> can also be traded with material goods as we invite local community
> to join us at this harvest/netivity celebration.
>
> Phase 4: Distribution of garlic credito and seeding the garlic
> October 2-October 6, 2002
> Taking the multiplication of garlic cloves as starting point, we hope
> to promote garlic credito for media exchange and seeding garlic for
> future generations. During the NAMAC Conference in Seattle (October 2-
> October 5), we will showcase garlic harvesting documents and garlic
> credito at rich-air.com. We will distribute edible garlic for
> nationwide and cross-border seeding in the green fields. On the
> weekend of October 5, we will gather again in Andes, New York. With
> Tovey Halleck, we seed the remaining garlic bulb by bulb, clove by
> clove.
>
> http://www.rich-air.com
>
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