Shu Lea Cheang's latest project "St(r)eaming the fields"

[cristine wang]

[Shu Lea Cheang's latest project "St(r)eaming the fields" launched this
week 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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best regards, cristine wang
mobile: 917.318.0081 http://cristine.org