Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty is a tokenized four-screen video installation and generative soundscape attached to the blockchain, which explores value systems and wealth disparity. The artwork is composed of auction scenes, performances, and choral interludes by different communities such as prisoners, blockchain technology employees, market sellers, and Sotheby's auction bidders. Knowles documented a series of auctions which reflect the breadth of wealth and financial power individuals in different communities have. These include prisoners at HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, Ethereal Summit attendees, employees at blockchain company ConsenSys in NY, Mancunians at Openshaw market, Manchester, and the Russian community in central London buying their cultural artefacts at Sotheby's auction house. Knowles captured images of people from these communities bidding, through documenting their attire rather than identities, and made audio recordings of them singing and the sounds of their environments--ultimately, revealing the texture of these communities. The work draws on technological and financial power structures that traditionally scaffold the disparity between a wealthy elite and everyday working people but looks to re-imagine our vertically stacked digital ecosystem to horizontally distribute wealth.

The installation commences when a visitor drops a coin into a machine designed to expose the mechanisms needed to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency. Alongside the machine, Knowles has created a film and soundscape triggered by sensors responding to visitors locations in the installation. Each and every member of the Trickle Down community who has helped the work come to fruition receives a share of the ETH via a smart contract on the blockchain every time the work is played. The sensors, software, and electronic components are all exposed, along with a read out of the blockchain ledger.

Links: http://www.helenknowles.com/index.php/work/trickle_down

Photography, film and sound editing: Helen Knowles
Recordings: Helen Knowles, Denis Jones, Damien Mahoney and Arone Dyers
Machine design: Daniel Dressel
Composition, coding and sound diffusion design: Pablo Galaz Salamanca
Interaction design: Lewis Sykes
Smart contract: BlockRocket
Legal oversight: Howard Kennedy LLP

Produced by FutureEverything. Supported using public funding from Arts Council England with additional support from The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, arebyte Gallery, The University of Salford, Ethereal Summit, ConsenSys, and FACT.

Helen Knowles (GB) (b.1975) is an artist and curator of the Birth Rites Collection. She studied at Glasgow School of Art and Goldsmiths University. She has exhibited at arebyte Gallery, London, The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, NEMO festival, 104 Paris, Hannover Kunstverein, ZKM Karlsruhe, and Zabludowicz Collection, London. Her work is held in collections including The Whitworth Art Gallery, Tate Library and Archive, The National Art Library. Residencies include Trelex Residency, Future Everything, HMP Altcourse, FACT, Liverpool, Moscow ICA, Santa Fe Arts Institute, and Jodrell Bank Science Centre and Arboretum.