(DE)WORK
The current installation, (DE)WORK, seeks to expose the interdependencies between processes of material extraction, productive labour, and economic growth within the contemporary globalised economy. It presents raw data on economic and financial, environmental, and political metrics in an abstract and continuous flow, manicured live by an algorithm to further demonstrate the importance of digitalisation in contemporary society. Using deforestation as an illustrative example, the installation illustrates the linkages between these complex processes, inviting the viewer to appreciate the relationship between these fluctuating metrics which drive processes of material extraction.
Technological development and intensifying processes of globalisation have engendered an apparent decoupling between economic growth and processes of material extraction. However, this has only been made possible due to the increased abstraction of labour, and the spatial distance between sites of production and consumption.
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The environmental metrics present the overall status of deforestation with regard to five different aspects: hectares of forests cut down or burned; hectares of replanted forests; percentage of wild forest remaining; hectares of desert growth; and cubic meters of wood produced.
The financial metrics display the value of public and private companies whose activities contribute to deforestation. Companies like Cargill, Amagi, and ADM trade, purchase, and distribute agricultural commodities worldwide. These commodities not only pertain to lumber and wood, but any commodity linked to deforestation via their supply chains.
The political metrics are illustrated as news feeds in the form of immediate updates regarding information related to the above processes of deforestation. These news feeds include statements by politicians, legal proposals, and other actions directly concerning or related to deforestation. The political metrics are filtered via the use of tags, selecting specific news items from the raw data.
The current publication seeks to present the relations between these metrics, as presented by the installation, and labour by reflecting on their interconnectedness within the contemporary globalised economy.
The Project is a collaboration between reWork and Gustav Vallin
Technical Assistance: Danni Dromi (coding) and Tommaso Vidali (structural engineering)
With the generou support of: Statens Kunstfonden and Vision Led World.
The installation has been conceived by reWork and is hosted by the National Museum of Architecture Oslo as part of the
Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019.
O
Technical Assistance: Danni Dromi (coding) and Tommaso Vidali (structural engineering)
With the generou support of: Statens Kunstfonden and Vision Led World.
The installation has been conceived by reWork and is hosted by the National Museum of Architecture Oslo as part of the
Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019.
O