<videovortex> a database theory film by YOHA: Invisible Airs, with Graham Harwood a.o.

[Geert Lovink]

Project: http://yoha.co.uk/invisible
Website: http://www.vimeo.com/36567631
Contact: Alistair.Oldham at uwe.ac.uk

The computerized database is fundamentally changing society. From  
communication, to government, transport, shopping, friendship, health,  
education, narrative and even the way we watch film, the database is  
radically transforming our lives. And yet we are only barely aware of  
its existence, we don't really know what a database is : like  
electricity, it's pervasive and all around us , but we cannot actually  
see it.

Digital media artists YOHA set about making the database visible.  
Commissioned by the Digital Cultures Research Centre at the University  
of the West of England, they use Bristol City Council's local  
government expenditure to explore the relationship between the  
database, power and expenditure.

Turning the pounds sterling of expenditure into the pounds per square  
inch of pneumatic pressure, they make a suite of engineered mechanical  
contraptions : a Potato Cannon, an Old People Pneumatic Floor  
Polisher, an Expenditure Riding Saddle and an Open Data Book Stabber.

But as they tour these contraptions around Bristol, they become  
embroiled in the more visceral realities of the city, in the form of  
the Royal Wedding, local anti Tesco riots and the censorship of a  
local outdoor cinema.