Chain, 2022.

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Description of the piece

In CHAIN, We have confined echoes of unending circular labour into an observable loop of digital processes. This feedback system works to pass on data: the machine does not ache and sweat where We might, and instead is obedient with its output. But nothing is perpetual or perfect: the system demands input, and is leaky, lossy, devouring and quickly forgetting the last gift of interaction offered to it. Models of hermetic processes break down on examination - nothing lasts forever and everything returns to rot, or to barren remnants. Through the conveyance, the feedback, the consumption and the degradation something of the fragile systems we are all embedded in may be laid bare
CHAIN is made up of a collection of devices, inputs and outputs, organised as four intercommunicating nodes consuming, digesting and excreting:

• the Ear
• the Eye
• the Stomach
• the Mouth

so named for the processes they perform. and for their interdependence towards some bodily whole. Misinterpretations, loss-in-translations and serendipitous allegories arise from its functions, and all the while the system requires interaction and electricity to sustain it: there is no closed, perfect perpetuity, and attempts to understand and collaborate with the system have unpredictable results.

There will be extensive opportunity through the evening for you to explore communication with the system, punctuated by activations of the system by our shift workers and performers in a fluid division of labour: these activations will occur at approximately 40 minute intervals from 8pm until 11pm, and will be signalled by the orange work light at the entrance being switched on. Please be mindful of the fragile appendages of the system as you interact with it in mutual respect.

Guided by those on shift, we invite you to interact with the system inputs at each node:

• a listening post at the Ear
• an aperture at the Eye watching for signs of comprehension
• a graveyard of e-waste at the Stomach: wires, mineral, ore to offer for ingestion and inspection
• an interface at the Mouth for intimate calibration of the system's signals

This is a sensing, through an intricate interconnected web of devices, performers and digital artefacts We are sensing subtle changes in flow, pressure, prevailing winds, collective sentiment, that our own ears, eyes and tongues, or isolated devices can't detect. We might experience this as an alert to frac- tures in our state of affairs. What systems do we figure as immutable and infinite, and where are their breakpoints, slippages and harmonics? How do they unfold when leak and loss becomes hemorrhage and depletion?

In-grid was born from a six-week group residency at arebyte Gallery in 2020 and the name now refers to the collective formed by many of the residents as they continue to work together. From their formative residency to their recent site-specific celebrations, In-grid interrogate digital labour, virtual existences, surveillance and broken systems while embracing visibility in their working processes and leading with a spirit of vibrancy and hope for new forms of togetherness In-grid members contributing to this event are Rebecca Aston, Megan Benson Romain Biros, Johanna de Verdier, Yewen Jin, Veera Jussila, James Lawton, Sunny Liao, Hazel Ryan, Katie Tindle, and Nate Townsend
With thanks to Christina Karpodini and Shai Rapoport for joining In-grid in performance. @in_grid in-grid.io