Blog 4: identifying emergent practices
By Laura McLean
It’s My Party and I do What I Want To
by Ivan Sikic
This installation comprises of 99 ’number 1’ balloons, 49m3 approx. of helium, 400 m of string, 1.7kg brick, 22k Gold leaf, 7000 thumbtacks to poetically visualise the way the economy is heading. On his website Sikic quotes a Forbes magazine report prediction “as of 2016, more than half of all of the world’s wealth will be in the hands of one percent of the population.” The occupy wall street movement and Movement 15-M are also mentioned as inspiration for this installation. The most effective part of this is how well the huge problems in the economy are simply visualised in a way which people can understand instantly. Another great example stumbled across in the research was a animated video explaining how the economy works by Ray Dalio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0.
The emergent practice this piece connects to most closely is social action; social action is political, and centres around people, taking steps to change and improve, intent to address unjust issues in society. Sikic is addressing the unjustness of the richest being held up my the rest of the world and how all of our fates are reliant on a invisible phenomenon (money/ credit, represented as helium). While Sikic’s work doesn’t directly provide a solution to this large scale problem, it adds to the conversation, influences people and creates a visualisation which leads people to think about what will happen once the helium (or credit) runs out? This installation is still live and what will happen once the balloons deflate and how people will react to that is unknown, much like the uncertainty of the future of our globally connected economies.
Dalio, R. 2013, How The Economic Machine Works, YouTube, viewed August 2 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0>.
Hamada, K. 2015, 99 Balloons, 1 Brick of Gold, 7000 Thumbtacks, Booooooom, viewed August 2 2015, <http://www.booooooom.com/2015/07/27/99-balloons-1-brick-of-gold-7-thousand-thumbtacks/>.
Miller, M. 2015, Income Inequality Visualized By One Gold Brick and 99 Balloons, Fast Co Design, viewed August 2 2015, <http://www.fastcodesign.com/3049033/infographic-of-the-day/income-inequality-visualized-by-one-gold-brick-and-99-balloons>.
Mufson, B. 2015, Explaining Income Inequality with Balloons, Gold and Thumbtacks, The Creators Project, viewed August 2 2015, <http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/explaining-income-inequality-with-balloons-gold-and-thumbtacks>.
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