Container Culture in[ ]ex: Vancouver

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Centre A is proud to present Container Culture: IN[ ]EX, a new interactive, city-wide collaborative media art project involving a shipping container and thousand of smaller modules. 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. IN[ ]EX invites audience activity, movement and interaction, as well as engages with the larger urban context as the blocks are dispersed throughout the city and culture in general.

The blocks are distributed through an array of interventions that reference early models of instruction-based participatory works. The interventions range in scale and complexity and are geared toward carving out a cultural existence for the blocks across a wide variety of channels, including performance, commerce, installation, social media, mail art, photography, product placement, activism, and viral networks. As the blocks circulate, they transmit data which is collected by a mesh network and processed to create a constantly remixed sound environment in a shipping container.

Ultimately, IN[ ]EX explores the migration of capital, goods, and people through the ports and public spaces of Vancouver, Canada, and San José, California. By using thousands of small wooden blocks as placeholders of this activity, the project brings forward a consideration of not only the social conditions of movement in the two cities but also the ways in which the circulation of these things implicates us in the global economy and informs our diverse world-views.

In conjunction with UBC’s Living the Global City Lecture Series, IN[ ]EX will premiere at the World Urban Festival at the Great Northern Way Campus, as part of the 2006 UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum in Vancouver, June 19-25. Later this summer, it will travel to San José, California, to participate in the CONTAINER CULTURE exhibition at the 2006 International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA2006) & ZeroOne San José: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge, August 7-13,http://isea2006.sjsu.edu.

Centre A acknowledges the generous support of patrons, sponsors, members, partners, private foundations, and government funding agencies, including the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs. “Container Culture” is additionally supported by the Province of British Columbia through the Spirit of BC Arts Fund, Crossbow Technology Inc., and Eco-Lumber Co-op.

World Urban Festival
http://www.worldurbanfestival.com

World Urban Forum
http://www.wuf3.ubc.ca