Cargo

Cargo
video/quicktime
1920 × 1080
00:59

From the curatorial essay by Christina Oyawale and Karina Iskandarsjah:

"In this age of instant information and global communication, a key component of the machinery that assembles our 'borderless' world is the global shipping industry. Every year, hundreds of millions of TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) of goods are shipped around the world via a network of routes connecting major and minor ports. The ease with which these materials move across borders belies the harsh restrictions on the movement of human bodies -- with the exception of a small elite.

"'Cargo' by Lawrence Bird creates an emblem of the shipping container: something that is central to the processes of global supply chains, with widespread social and environmental impacts. In 'Cargo', animated shipping containers host data-mined video renderings of formerly wild and cultural spaces surrounding ports and canals as territories of concrete and steel. These spaces have also become imbricated with our digital environments. Information systems are based on similar modern notions of networks, information packaging, and standardization. Additionally, we can reflect on virtual networks, as the software with which this projection was realized (TouchDesigner) manipulates and visualizes data by creating tools out of networks, nodes, and containers."