IN [ ] EX (2006)

"With IN[ ]EX, thousands of wooden blocks are released into the world. Their circulation creates a sound environment in the space of a shipping container. This project takes place in the context of shipping and distribution of goods and the movement of people in the two port cities of Vancouver, British Columbia, and San Jose, California. IN[ ]EX engages both the subject of things and the mechanisms by which things are distributed in the global economy. In this project the unit that circulates through the network system is overtly material -- blocks of selectively logged Douglas Fir embedded with rare earth magnets. The piece introduces questions of what happens when we move from a digital culture that is immaterial and toward a view of networks as they operate in physical and material space. Among other things, this leads to questions about the database: what is a database when each unit or thing in it occupies physical space? Is the "Internet of things" a kind of database? Can you have other databases of things? Is a factory a database? Is a Wal-Mart a database?"

IN[ ]EX is a distributed audio sculpture in which thousands of wooden blocks with embedded technology are released into the city to engage the public as active agents.

As the blocks circulate, they transmit data which is collected and processed to create a constantly remixed sound environment in a shipping container.

IN[ ]EX explores the migration of capital, goods, and people through the ports and public spaces of Vancouver, Canada, and San Jose, California.

IN[ ]EX launched at Centre A (Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art) on June 16, 2006 and on August 7, 2006 IN[ ]EX launched in San Jose, California during ISEA 2006 and the Zero One SJ Biennale.

IN[ ]EX is a collaborative project by Kate Armstrong, Bobbi Kozinuk, M. Simon Levin, Laurie Long, Leonard J. Paul, Manuel Pina, and Jean Routhier. Curators: Alice Ming Wai Jim/ Steve Dietz.