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R-U-In?S: Underground Economies, 2011
Featuring material from 2009-2011derived from the R-U-In?S exchange network
Custom Order for Atelier 35, Bucharest, Romania
Hosted, produced and curated by Silvia Saitoc and Matei Sameihaian
Remotely art directed and selected by R-U-In?S creator Kari Altmann
Featuring projects and files by Sebastian Moyano, Iain Ball & Emily Jones, Sam Hancocks, Matteo Giordano, and Kari Altmann
Poster Versions
The R-U-In?s: Underground Economies exhibition focuses on different strata of value exchange, be it through outsourcing memes in online databases or the illicit aggregation of products into a black market of critical attitudes. The main purpose of the project is to extract the underlying mechanisms of trading and branding networks that parallel the mainstream apparatuses, both in the realm of artistic production and the ecology of the global market.
Tasked with creating a brand outpost on minimal budget, Silvia and Matei became the ambassadors for printing a project which they'd only experience online into a gallery space. The results, akin to a bootlegged kiosk or informational pavilion, showed a translation of the R-U-In?S project through material states of production based on available local resources.
Unlike many online-to-offline shows, this was not reliant on the purchase of supplies and services, but on the raw display of exchanged files, goods, and identities. Much like their display in the Tumblr currents through which they are exchanged, the focus is on the processes that resulted in this image or object making it to this place in this format, and all the misappropriation that happens along the way.
Bucharest itself is also famous for internet-based black markets...
8 GB (Helmet and Vest) by Matteo Giordano
Image by Atelier 35
B I O (In background) and 8 GB (Helmet) by Matteo Giordano
Image by Atelier 35
NEODYMIUM (Informational Kiosk) by ENERGY PANGEA
Image by Atelier 35
NEODYMIUM (Informational Kiosk) by ENERGY PANGEA (Emily Jones and Iain Ball)
Image by Atelier 35
SONIA VERSIONS (for R-U-In?S)
Image by Atelier 35
SORRY by DATEISMO aka Sebastian Moyano
Image by Atelier 35
THIS IS AN APPARAT.US by VISUAL-AIDS aka Sam Hancocks
Image by Atelier 35
This Is An Apparat.us by Visual-Aids (Sam Hancocks)
SSHARPP (HYDES) by Kari Altmann
Image by Atelier 35
PICTURES FROM THE OPENING:
Extracted from personal blog posts about the show:
Working as a selecter in a show of content management when your own content is in the mix presents a new challenge. As each identity has to address the lexicon but also specialize enough so that there are "no repeats", I find many of my own ideas and tropes now expressed through the work of others, and in the end only adding tangential things to help glue together the sequence--working as an art director more than an artist.
Through the support of Atelier 35 I was able to arrive for install weekend, literally chasing after my own show as it was presented back to me. R-U-In?S has always involved a certain amount of letting things go to uncontrollable exchange processes that inevitably mutate things dropped into them, and my own art practice involves countless "outsourced" art shows in which I'm never in the room with the works.
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This show addresses three main institutional questions: that of the anonymous networked identity presenting itself as distinct characters; the realities and formats of the email-outsourced art show as a brand outpost; and the pressures of product in the career of artists.
As R-U-In?S turned from a new genre and vocabulary into a product and meme of its own, it also became subject to external aggregation, mistranslation, bootlegs, and counterfeits...not to mention the constant threat of obsolescence as it becomes viewed aesthetically in a consumer lineage of trends.
Can a black market like this one spawn another black market of its own? If meaning is the product in our original recycled economy,
is our bootleg market one where the objects are only seen for their parts or judged on their retail value or craftsmanship in consumer, art, and informational markets? If not retail value, which implies a return to the original market, perhaps the better word is "fav" value?
As the activity moves away from its inherent form of rapid-fire media sharing and is presented outside its context of continually moving image call and response, how are the artists expected to produce and compete? When all their ideas, identities, and memes have influenced one another, who claims what, who acts first, and then who responds? If a user from the network can't produce beyond Tumblr, can they take part in the show?Originally planned to include live animal tanks and elaborate offline production, the gallery's funding was cut in half a few weeks before the opening. Many of the interstitial elements of the show were removed to reveal a bare bones installation of screen-oriented objects, one that had just a few slots to establish its brand (SORRY).
Showing individual items that were created around the R-U-In?S prompt between 2009 and 2011 by core members of the network who also identify as artists or producers, the exhibition acts almost as a bootleg of itself: responding to its top-tier expected tropes as a means of establishing an outpost in foreign territories.
SOFT BRANDING is a current buzz term that refers to fluid or subtle sets of branded elements that define a company's intellectual property or appear in other contexts merely to breed familiarity. This can take the form of product placement inside another cultural vehicle such as a music video, viral video, or film. It can also refer to places like retail stores and restaurant franchises in which the branding strategy involves each outpost of the company being unique—that is, all locations won't look the same or carry the same merchandise, but the overarching brand message will still be present as the iteration of the brand changes from location to location.
