REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas

interactive web-based documentary, commissioned by External Pages, 2021

https://externalpages.org/#camila-galaz
A video demonstration of the play through is available here with the pw: redes

REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas is an interactive video exhibition exploring political ideals expressed through network communication during two periods of change in Chilean history. Focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on the current Estallido Social movement, the research is displayed through the interface of Project Cybersyn, a socialist cybernetics project from the early 70s Allende period.

Audiences navigate the show via a control panel interface found on the classic Tulip chairs of the Cybersyn Opsroom. Based on a viable system model, Cybersyn aimed to level hierarchies and improve communication through computer technologies in a manner aligned with Allende’s socialist ideals. With the backdrop of the Opsroom, the work highlights the awkward evolution of network communication: demonstrators using the tools of modern social media apps that are a consequence of neoliberalism - an ideology that protesters are in fact challenging in the face of austerity.

“Redes”, translates to “networks” from Spanish. The subtitle comes from an introduction to a lecture by Fernando Flores (Minister of Economics and Finance during the Allende Government and in charge of Project Cybersyn) in which the speaker describes carrying around a book by Flores so much that it was covered in rotten peaches and bananas from the bottom of his backpack. Food shortages, hunger, and the shutting down of community soup kitchens (ollas comunas), are recurring issues in Chile. Against the spoiled peaches, “bread and justice” comes from ‘Litany for a Computer and a Baby About to Be Born’, a song created to promote Project Cybersyn: pan y justicia en la tierra (bread and justice on earth).

REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas
Camila Galaz, 2021
approx. 15min
Made with assistance and coding from the team at External Pages, graphic design from Effie Crompton, and CGI from Bel Docherty.
Included: messages from UK-based journalist Naomi Larsson Piñeda; audio messages, video, and Instagram posts from the team at @18.10aprueba; embedded livestream from Galería CIMA; music from Cristóbal Jofré.