Helen Knowles | Trickle Down – A New Vertical Sovereignty

On 24 May 2018 the ZKM | Karlsruhe offered a workshop with artist Helen Knowles and voice expert Damien Mahoney, in which a participation in a new video work – »trickle down« – was possible and in a series of voice workshops to compose a voice work on digital sovereignty. On the same day there was a artist talk with Helen Knowles. 

About the project 

Drawing on current power structures of the new vertical sovereignty of the digital era, which could be viewed as the scaffolds for the disparity between the wealthy elite and the everyday working person. »Trickle Down«, is a three-screen video work composed of auction scenes, auction performances, and choral interludes from different communities. These settings and communities include: prisoners at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool and employees at a blockchain/crypto currency company; Mancunians doing their shopping at Openshaw market in North Manchester and oligarchs buying their cultural artefacts at Sotheby’s auction house.

Interwoven with this will be a sound-scape composed by Denis Jones which investigates economic values and planetary-scale computation. Central to this composition is the 8000-year-old instrument called the Sheng which Jaron Lanier believes to be the original precursor of digital information. Based on the idea of a game of chance, a gamble, this three-screen video work will begin when the visitor drops a coin into a machine. This machine will be specifically designed to expose the hardware mechanism of the procedure to convert the fiat currency into a crypto-currency. Every time the video is played, it will be attached to the blockchain ledger in order to pay out micro-payments to the collaborators on the project, including the inmates.

Video documentary:

ZKM | Videostudio

Camera: Andy Koch, Frenz Jordt
Editing: Daniel Vogrin