Opencoil – appropriating inductive charging pads in the wild (2020) [video]

Summary

Speedy and Scooty main Art & Culture Playlists: 'rc3' videos starting here / audio [EN] The OPENCOIL exhibition explores the impact of micro-mobility services on urban space by using its decentralised infrastructure as an exhibition space, while also addressing the conditions and effects of this infrastructure. [DE] Die Ausstellung OPENCOIL setzt sich mit den Auswirkungen von Mikro-Mobilitätsdiensten auf den Stadtraum auseinander, indem sie ihre dezentrale Infrastruktur als Ausstellungsraum nutzt und gleichzeitig die Bedingungen und Auswirkungen dieser Infrastrukturen auch zum Thema macht. [EN] 11 artists were invited to present their work on a small Wifi controller with ~2MB offline memory. These "digital gallery spaces" are attached to 11 randomly selected e-scooters. Thus the exhibition, unnoticed by the regular users of these scooters, drives through the city as a "roaming speed show". While capacity restrictions and the preferred avoidance of gatherings in closed spaces pose challenges on traditional galleries and museums, OPENCOIL aims to combine the independence of the online with the materiality of the offline (and vice versa). The infrastructure of "micro-mobility services" will be taken over - climate-neutral and decentralised. The pavements of many cities around the world have been flooded in recent years by so-called 'dockless sharing vehicles'. With promises of eco-friendliness and electromobility, these risk capitalism activists have occupied the grey zone between private and public space on the streets of our cities. However, this unscrupulous conscientiousness of 'micro-mobility services' raises important questions about urban space, ownership, agency, production, ecology and very late capitalism. How to deal with the occupation of public space? What tools and ways are there to reclaim it? OPENCOIL is not only meant to be a pandemic-proof way to show art in public offline space. OPENCOIL is also a creative (re)use of e-scooters, an attempt to approac...