>>	Worldebt, you can count on it

www.encorebruxelles.org/jk LAB[au] laboratory for architecture and urbanism Manuel Abendroth Jérôme Decock, Alexandre Plennevaux Gregoire Verhaegen http://www.lab-au.com John Knigkt encore...bruxelles Michèle Lachowsky Joël Benzakin	online project by : JK + LAB[au] + encore...bruxelles year of creation: 2000     ........> about ........> abstract (F) ........> print_screening ........> member cards ........> credits ........> project timeline ........> press ........> feedback
ABOUT THE WEB_SITE	Worldebt, you can count on it Worldebt, the working title for a new project by John Knight, was realized in collaboration with the architectural office of Lab(au). Worldebt is an 'on-line' project dealing with the internet as a support, a medium, for new contemporary art productions extending the mediation of art to new fields of investigation, it engages the internet as a subtextual site for the diffusion of information(s). This collaboration project thus investigates the condition, inscriptions and modalities of contemporary art according to information networks, economic and social structures and their multiple inter-relations When interested visitors log on to the project's web site, multiple layers of informational systems open up so as to allow the receiver the opportunity to select their nation of choice, and become one of the 181 individuals to receive a fully illustrated Worldebt card and membership that will ensure the kind of lifestyle we all seek. Bydoing so, the users' interactions are tracked, providing a new layer of information displayed through "scientific-like" statistics and geo-political maps. In this manner; the art collectors are involved in a process building up a geo-political map displaying the relation between new communication technologies, art and economics. Since its inception in 1996, Encore…Bruxelles' program has focused on the creation and presentation of specific artist's projects produced in a variety of contemporary disciplines. Recently, Encore…Bruxelles has expanded its interests to include the use of the internet for the first time with the introduction of a project by the North American artist John Knight. Encore…Bruxelles "Our lifestyle is not up for negotiation" George Bush In July of 1944, as World War II raged across Europe and Asia, leaders from England and the United States convened a conference in the quiet solitude of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. It was there that the building blocks for a new world order based on the free movement of international capital was established. In order to facilitate such a liberal, capitalist world economy two new multilateral financial institutions were established that would put a strong hold on the global economy for the next fifty years. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the international Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) were created in concert to ensure the continuous flow of capital into the world markets and guarantee a secured and profitable means of private foreign investment for the future. Despite allusions to the alleviation of global poverty, the unwritten goal of the IMF/World Bank's "free market" capitalism was the creation and enforcement of a neo-colonial economy dominated by transnational corporations. So, as the World Bank celebrates more than fifty years of unparalleled global economic plunder, it seems to be the opportune moment to introduce the commemorative Worldebt edition. With a current membership of 181 debtor nations to choose from, each fully illustrated Worldebt card contains the vital information necessary to insure the kind of lifestyle we all seek John Knight   "There is nothing more relentlessly ideological than the apparently anti-ideological rhetoric of information technology." (Arthur and Marielouise Kroker, media theorists) As New communication and computation technologies have emphasized, globalization and economics bring new semantics which, although sharing the same visual codes and interaction structure, are applied to fields ranging from corporate ID and advertising (the logoized world) to computer's graphical user interface. These visual codes by communicating complex meanings - one can describe as 'programs' - challenge the public from a basic compulsive buying behavior to the understanding of complex global information structures as well as intricate economical, social and political settings. They constitute a legitimate language serving the purpose of corporate entity as well as the purpose of communication processes and information structures. "Understanding information is power." (Richard Saul Wurman, in "UNDERSTANDING") The consultation of information produces information. In a mediated world where information has become the most valuable material, information-coding, -structuring and -statistical analysis are all generative processes through which interaction and visual outputs ends as behavioural patterns. Media cognition is then a matter of first importance in the analysis and the setting of a relationship between communication media and visual codes, the realm of networked global social, political and economical language. LAB[au]
	L'unité de production et de création contemporaine 'encore bruxelles' a élargi ses intérêts vers l'usage d'Internet comme un support, un médium pour de nouvelles productions artistiques étendant la médiation artistique vers de nouveaux champs de recherches et de nouvelles modalités de diffusion d'art. 'Worlddebt, you can count on it ', le titre du nouveau projet de John Knight, fut conçu et réalisé en collaboration avec LAB[au], laboratoire d'architecture et d'urbanisme. Bien que le projet ne réside pas qu'en ligne, il s'insère dans le réseau en tant que site subtextuel pour la diffusion d'inFORMation(s). Lorsqu'un visiteur se connecte au site du projet, de multiples couches d'information s'ouvrent pour lui donner l'opportunité de choisir un pays et de devenir l'une des 181 personnes qui recevront une carte de membre illustrée " Worldebt ", une adhésion qui assure le style de vie que nous recherchons tous (" the kind of lifestyle we all seek "). Lors de la visite, les interactions de l'utilisateur sont enregistrées, constituant une nouvelle couche d'information représentée à travers des graphes statistiques et des cartes géographiques. L'évaluation de l'interactivité et de l'image comme support de communication constituent ainsi une sémantique qui à travers le codage, la structuration et l'analyse statistique de l'information provoque le public autant dans son interaction que dans sa compréhension des structures complexes de l'information. De cette manière, le collectionneur d'art contemporain est impliqué dans un processus qui construit successivement une carte géopolitique illustrant les relations entre les technologies de l'information, l'art et l'économie. production : encore bruxelles, http://www.encorebruxelles.org auteurs : John Knight + LAB[au] , http://www.lab-au.com date de réalisation : 07.12.00
PRINT_SCREENING
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PROJECT CREDITS	Credits www-site : Conception : John Knight + LAB[au] Production : encore...bruxelles _ http://www.encorebruxelles.org Realisation : LAB[au], ( M. ABENDROTH, J. DECOCK, A. PLENNEVAUX, G.Verhaegen online : December 2000
PROJECT TIMELINE	2002 Mars 2002 29.03.02 listen_watch to // LAB[au] invited to present the project for the belgium radio show Cybercafe21 ; www.cybercafe21.net by Xavier Ess being diffused simultaneously on radio / TV / and live stream on the internet ; 23:00 to 1:00 on 92.5 FM / RTBF2 13.02.2002 prize // LAB[au]+Jk + encore...bruxelles has received the cuture2002 prize for the best belgium ART online project _ WORLDEBT,you can count on it ', *-] thank to the _ jury ! comment of the jury: ' Le site web proprement dit est, bien qu'animé et moderne, plutôt modeste de prime abord. Mais très vite, on distingue un ton sous-jacent ironique, parodique. Celui-ci constitue la base d'un concept artistique raffiné…s'inscrivant dans las annals de l'art Internet activiste du style de celui de Etoy et @rtmark.' Worldebt est soubversif, et ce du fait que ses concepteurs utilisent au mieux tous les atouts de la global communication (instant interaction, absence de planéité, intemporalité) pour en retirer une prise de conscience.' February 2002 The project has been included in the RHIZOME > art database Worldebt nominated for the Culture 2002 Award, best belgium web-site _ final Jury 13 March 2002 _ in the category: ART_ with the ' Worldebt, you can count on it ' online project > for the Award goto.> http://www.culture2002.be 2001 November 2001 The project has been selected for the net_art modul for the Netd@ys 2001 festival > October 2001 Publishing of the project in the contmporary art magazine MOUVEMENT > 2000 Dezember 2000 , launch of the online project 07.12.2001 opening at ' espace Meridien ' _ encore...bruxelles
PRESS...	October 2001 Publishing of the project in the contmporary art magazine MOUVEMENT >
FEEDBACK                           go.to lab.files	1- www.encorebruxelles.org/jk Une parodie ironique et engagée de l’économie globale et du problème de la dette mondiale. Un design parfait comme s’il s’agissait de l’identité d’une grande firme internationale de la finance. culture 2002.be ....> 2- extension online d'un projet d'art contemporain sur l'ère post-colonialiste et la banque mondiale praktika.com 3- An idea of John Knight, produced by encore...bruxelles, developped and conceived by LAB[au] questionning how to participate to the world debt with a credit card. A critical but fun project illustrating the relationships between the NTCI, art, poliytics and world economy Netd@ys 2002 ....> 4- ' Le site web proprement dit est, bien qu'animé et moderne, plutôt modeste de prime abord. Mais très vite, on distingue un ton sous-jacent ironique, parodique. Celui-ci constitue la base d'un concept artistique raffiné…s'inscrivant dans las annals de l'art Internet activiste du style de celui de Etoy et @rtmark.' Worldebt est soubversif, et ce du fait que ses concepteurs utilisent au mieux tous les atouts de la global communication (instant interaction, absence de planéité, intemporalité) pour en retirer une prise de conscience.' comment of the culture 2002 jury ...>
© LAB[au] 2002