Artwork: Forkonomy() | 岔經濟

Artists: Winnie Soon and Lee Tzu Tung

Response by: Dr Eric Deibel, Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute

One way to look at the wide open ocean is as an outside, and as possibly the last place that has no masters and is independent from society and its rules. This artwork, “Forkonomy”, delightfully invokes the fantasy of freedom, seeking to create a space from where to confront the some-old understanding of (state) sovereignty and its hold over today’s geopolitics.

Also today “the ocean” is one of the principle characters in tense military confrontations. Perhaps the “south china sea” appears as a conflict that is far away, for European audiences, and, to some the ocean might seem less consequential today. After all, some people and some types of goods still appear to come in-and-out, seemingly without friction. What if, however, that has changed and the ocean is showing once again that it will be part of what sets “the island” apart from the mainland?

This is a story of old-fashioned borders and who and what gets in and out. It is, as it was, about intense surveillance of every type of connection, communication, goods, as well as places, like the ones that some people should reach easily, like those with sun or the ones that represent wealth and prosperity. This artwork is a reminder that there is a fork in the road; that there are other paths, leading away from a repeat of that same-old story about a world of empires that compete over power.

Who owns the oceans? Once the answer is what set apart the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Dutch and, yes, the British, when seeking to expand their (colonial) reach. In turn, “Forkonomy” challenges the idea that the ocean belongs to no one, and that the projection of state or corporate power is what decides who owns “the (South China/Irish) Sea”. What if the answer is given that the ocean belongs to “everyone”?

Accordingly the artwork brings together its own set of fantasies about decentralization, participation, community and identity. It ties them together in an “open source” orientation, inspired by its ability to confront and morph the conventional language of contracts, ownership, rights and value. What if an ocean might be that belongs to “the people”, turning it back into a “commons”, or, at least, bringing out that it is multiple, existing as a tangled web of “nature” and “culture” that carries over to (Taiwanese/Irish) identity politics?

And yet, power is elusive, and so is the ocean. There is a sense of lightheartedness to the project that makes it possible to stare into the void of history, which includes strong memories of colonialism and the faint echo of the type of anti-neoliberalism that was once part of open source philosophies, in the 90s. The latter refers to being curious about code, for its own sake, playfully and enthusiastically experimenting together, exploring the limits of the possible. Also that is about the ocean, as a dream of what might be possible, of human potential released from restriction.

Today, however, the question is unavoidable: what keeps out the more delirious fantasies about the kind of “freedom” that knows no duty to anyone else, in its attempt to create an outside to the hierarchical, centralized and expansive networks? It might be that the ocean “should” belong to everyone, but figuring “how” that might be acted upon implies getting uncomfortably close to the kind of “outside” to society that takes the guise of blockchains, peer-to-peer networks, torrent protocols, onion routing, and other technological attempts to avoid oversight.

There are many answers, and some are from those whose aspiration is that they become one of the powerful themselves; leaving everything else the same. That horizon is one reason why the answer should not just be given in technical terms or by technocrats. It should not even just be about the (lack of) involvement of the struggling (Irish) humanities, arts and social sciences.

It should be “you” who now could represent “the island” that is surrounded by “the ocean” and being flooded with the geopolitics of AI, algorithms, code and so on. It needs to be a community effort: to learn “how” to navigate the powerful currents of blockchain, cryptocurrency, AI and so on? How else, after all, will we be able to face the forces unleashed by the many types of geopolitical crises, whether they are infectious, financial, ecological, digital, biotechnological or about fundamental values that require some type of defense?

Link to view more information on the artwork: https://2024.betafestival.ie/exhibitions/unsettling-the-algorithm/Forkonomy()%20|%20%E5%B2%94%E7%B6%93%E6%BF%9F