»Garlic = Rich Air,« ¹ the second and third phases of Shu Lea Cheang's »Str(e)aming the Fields« project, took place in New York City from September 27 to September 29, 2002, as a public network project. Whereas at the conference of the NAMAC (National Alliance for Media Art and Culture) in Seattle Cheang presented her art project mainly to institutions involved in the US media culture, at »Urban Drift« ² she was speaking in an international context of mobile architecture and wireless networks: »It was pretty interesting to present 'Garlic = Rich Air’ to a wide audience at this transdisciplinary event, and to discuss it both as an urban intervention and in the light of the increasing importance of free networks.«

Within the debate on urbanism and mobile technologies, Cheang's project - like »Urban Drift« - starts after the »crash.« With recent disappointments about the New Economy and the present recession still lowering in the background, mobility and flexibility are no longer hyped, but subjected to critical discussion. In a fictive post-crash scenario, »Str(e)aming the Fields« chooses garlic as a new social currency. The new currency can be exchanged for radio waves, bandwidth, pixels and bytes on the web site of »Garlic = Rich Air,« in imitation of the alternative market model employed by Argentina's »El club del Trueque.« This »Club of Exchange« has developed an unofficial trading network that uses »creditos« as units of value as an alternative to the heavily devalued peso. The virtual »trueque« club »Garlic = Rich Air« copies this idea by using virtual garlic creditos. »Bartering is not unusual in the internet. People from completely different backgrounds bump into one another and swap files without anyone touching money,« Cheang explains. That is why she chose garlic as a valuable capital investment for future independent media markets based not on buying and selling, but on exchange. »As a nomadic media artist, I myself live very much according to this principle. Of course, it is important to get something in return, but it doesn't have to be money.«

But even an alternative currency needs a goldmine. The coins for »Garlic = Rich Air« were raised on Tovey Halleck's organic farm in upstate New York over a period of many years. The big harvest of 10,000 garlic plants took place here at the end of July 2002 with a group of artists and media people. Garlic really does have good investment potential; each individual clove multiplies in the next generation. For Shu Lea Cheang, it was also important to establish a connection between the »media field« and the »green field.« Not just because she was given the »Challenge to the Field« prize of the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund for Independent Media, but because she thinks that people in media should generally be getting out of their studios more. In September, a large orange-painted truck loaded with garlic and equipped for wireless network access set out for New York City. In this third phase, the virtual creditos could be exchanged for edible garlic. The truck acted as a mobile urban market stand and provided the connection between the alternative economy and alternative networks. It was meant to get people thinking about the relationship between commerce and wireless networks.

At »Urban Drift,« Pit Schulz from Bootlab referred to the »UMTS swindle,« but praised WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technology, which was long ignored by the industry and has developed independently. »Within the WLAN movement people want to share a part of the bandwidth and simply see what the public can do with it. This is a chance to preserve one's own free spaces or create new ones. The costs are shared and greatly reduced, and you are free from the restrictions imposed by AOL and Telekom.« WLAN creates local radio network nodes that can be used to set up an independent local network with access to the internet.

Correspondingly, in »Garlic = Rich Air« Craig Plunkett's radio unit mobilised local WLAN nodes - which in insider jargon are called »hotspots« - in various places in New York City. »Just like with urban wireless movements such as NYCwireless³ or consume.net⁴ in London, the garlic project is about viewing digital space as a communal space in which you exchange things,« Cheang says. But it is not only digital space that is a communal space, but also the public space. So, in Cheang's opinion, wireless network nodes can be compared with farm stands in the street. »They are our local networks that could lead to the formation of an internet that is built up organically from the grass roots.«

With its »after the crash2 scenario, »Streaming the Fields« refers to a movement that has been trying for the past few years to realise the classical idea of free citizen networks using the technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). Here, the wireless high jinks are made possible by the »IEEE 802.11b Standard«: a license-free, free-for-all piece of technology that can be used to transmit data at speeds of up to 11Mbits at a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz. Nowadays there are a large number of freenetwork projects like this all over the world.⁵

In contrast to the internet, wireless networks accentuate local aspects because of their limited transmission range. The truck belonging to Cheang's »garlic community« did not just bring together the people who had been trading online so they could exchange their virtual »creditos« for edible garlic: the local community was also involved in the trading process. For example, one boy from Harlem was completely bent on swapping his chewing gum for garlic. On the other hand, the security controls around the New York Stock Exchange were so strict that the »garlic truck« was not allowed up close. But the performance artist Reverend Billy⁶ still succeeded in taking up position opposite the Stock Exchange market and calling for people to exchange dollar notes for cloves of garlic. »The police sent us away, but we still managed to carry out a good intervention,« says Cheang.

A continuation of the online and offline trade of »Garlic = Rich Air« is planned for the future. »It would be nice to travel around the regional media centres in the hinterland of New York as well and establish local wireless networks in these rural areas.« Although these local networks probably cannot provide a substitute for the networks run by commercial operators or for the large majority of users, they are an example for a sustainable strategy of networking that is intended to help realise the possibilities of self-administration, self-organisation and empowerment. The loophole that encourages grass-roots networks should be used as long as it remains open.

 

Translated by Tim Jones

 

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