Futuresonic

Futuresonic
Urban Festival of
Art, Music & Ideas
Manchester, UK

Creative Contribution

What was the significant innovation in approach or thinking behind the project/artwork? How can this be recognisably attributed to the involvement of creative practice?

Feral Trade is an attempt to secure relationships with key commodities using only email and personal acquaintances. It grew out of an interest in trading via existing resources and transport networks and in reducing the surplus energy and waste generated through the process of consumption.

Existing traffic between user's social and occupational networks is then used to distribute the product to the consumer with all transactions being executed via email, bank transfer and SMS. The intention is to trade using facilities and relationships that are already in existence, without the need to consume new resources in the process.

"Feral Trade tries to tap the potential of computer-formed social networks and the spare baggage space of funded cultural travel (art movers, visiting artists, curatorial and biennial circuits) to transport its products intercity." Kate Rich (written response to this survey)

Collaboration

What were the disciplinary contributors to the project? What model of research / development was followed? What were factors leading to success / problems?

What were the disciplinary contributors to the project?

The project is framed as a participatory artwork with a research dimension by the artist Kate Rich.

The user/agent network (products and vendors, couriers, customer base) is largely Kate Rich's peers, plus their networks. This has often meant that she uses artists and curators as transportation for the products, while many of her suppliers have been her friends' mothers. Feral Trade products are distributed along existing social networks while the few exceptions to social routing, such as shipping in the coffee with Delta Air Cargo, have been used as opportunities to develop social relations inter-industry.

The project is an informal research project which does not utilise an explicit 'model' of research. Instead it is an open enquiry that uses exploratory discussion forums and art events to pose and address questions.

"It tests the material resources it engages with (the provenance of grocery commodities, the load bearing capacity of social networks, the energy-source potential of the art world) via actual, repeated and logged transactions. The online courier database ( www.feraltrade.org) is designed as an extension of the physical network, to track and manage the often-chaotic data generated by the system." Kate Rich (written response to this survey)

"External conditions (market and ecological crashes) have enlarged the project's audience in recent times." Kate Rich (written response to this survey)

Values

What were the outcomes of the project? How were these disseminated to outside stakeholders? What models of value are implied by this project? What was the Impact of the work?

The project has been shipping groceries to a network of individuals and organisations worldwide, for the past 6 years. It has successfully developed the capacity to run an underground freight network without commercial interests.

On the website anyone can track and view all deliveries to the network, although there is no function available to buy. Participation is therefore only open to an existing network of people, although significant efforts have been made to increase access to the website such as installing viewing stations in galleries, museums, and art magazine coverage of the project.

"Feral Trade is an economy run on other peoples' business - how you get from A to B. Cash value of the grocery trade remains nominal: the investment is in the network, the surplus interactions generated and the information about the trade which accompany the products into homes." Kate Rich (written response to this survey)

Links and Resources

http://www.feraltrade.org/cgi-bin/courier/courier.pl

http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=142