The work was initiated by a commission by The New Networked Normal partners (NNN). In Autumn 2018, the NNN partners announced three commissions to be developed for nnn.freeport.global. The NNN explores art, technology and citizenship in the age of the Internet, a partnership project by Abandon Normal Devices (UK), Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) (ES), The Influencers (ES),Transmediale (DE) and STRP (NL). This project has been co-funded with support from the Creative Europe program.

Networks of Trust is a nomadic work always in progress, adapting to different places and growing through the input and participation of different audiences. The multimedia installation consists of an offline network of Nomadic Nodes, the Poem of the Origin of Networks of Trust, the Flag of the Networks of Trust and a newly conceived Diagram of the Networks of Trust of the city of Warsaw.

This work has its origins in the deep-time networks and connections created in the Aegean Archipelago. The islands in the Aegean Archipelago have been formed under the influence of three major forces: tectonism, volcanism, and eustatism. The insularity and the archipelagic infrastructure carved the conditions for networks to arise. Islands may seem closed off from the world but are also spaces of movement and relationality. The island and insular existence combines isolation and connectivity, in ways through which we can rethink the past, present and future of networks.

In a sense every island is actually a fractal of broader networks that extend from small and local ones between two or more islands, to the entire Archipelago, and to ourselves, experienced and interconnected as bodies of water and nodes of Networks.

The Nomadic Nodes of the offline Networks of Trust are combined with technologies such as P2P and the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) for distributed data storage resilient to potential censorship and control. The Nomadic Nodes are activated in the installation through the audience’s participation.

The audience is invited to connect via their device to the Nomadic Node and type a short imaginary story on the possible futures in their region, mainly on the themes of climate crisis, migration and technology’s positive or negative implementations. What will life in Warsaw be like in 20 or 50 years? What are the fears, desires and hopes for the possible futures? Is there a technology or an object crucial in this future?

In Networks of Trust, real-time fiction is utilized as a method for community building, collective speculative and decentralized storytelling. No personal information is kept on the node. When a story gets uploaded, only the name of the city where the upload took place gets recorded. The stories shared on the node travel with the node and are part of the installation. Stories on the Networks of Trust nodes are accessible by proximity only and indexed as cryptographic hashes on the site archipelago2092.xyz

Narrative Poem about the Origins of Networks of Trust

Greek audio, English & Polish subs, duration: 6’33”

An assembly of a dwarf elephant fossil (Elephas tiliensis) found on Tilos island and an artificial intelligence system share a story about the origin of networks in the Aegean Archipelago and the Mediterranean Sea. Drawing on paleontology, geology and evolutionary biology, this semi-fictional narrative focuses on collective existence, encounter and synergies.

Nomadic Node II

Mixed media, 42 × 30 × 5 cm

The node is part of a localized P2P offline digital network running on the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) for distributed data storage resilient to potential censorship and control. The network functions as a safe and protected repository for collective, decentralized storytelling about possible futures in respective regions, regarding climate crisis, migration and technology. Visitors are invited to connect to the node and upload their short imaginary story. Stories on the Networks of Trust nodes are accessible by proximity only and indexed as cryptographic hashes on the site archipelago2092.xyz.

archipelago2042.xyz

Website

The stories hosted on the Networks of Trust nodes are accessible by proximity only. On this website the entries are indexed as cryptographic hashes. The prefix indicates the city where each story was uploaded.

The Flag of Networks of Trust on Tilos island

digital print mounted on dipond, 105 × 70 cm

The first Nomadic Node of Networks of Trust was activated and hosted in the town hall of Tilos island in the southeast Aegean archipelago. The flag was raised on the island to mark the operation of the node in August 2018.

The Flag of Networks of Trust

digital print on fabric, 135 × 90 cm

The Flag represents the first Network of Trust between the first three nodes: the Tilian, the Athenian and the first Nomadic one.

Diagram of Networks of Trust in Warsaw

Mixed media digital print on archival paper, 110 × 60 cm

Depicted on this diagram are all nodes, including the Nomadic Node II, currently active as part of the installation Networks of Trust at the Warsaw Biennale. The Aegean networks are represented in the diagram. Visitors are invited to connect and share their stories.

Kyriaki Goni is an Athens born and based artist. Working across disciplines and technologies, she creates expanded, multi-layered installations. She connects the local with the global by critically touching on questions of technology, more specifically on surveillance, distributed networks and infrastructures, ecosystems, human and other than human relations. Her work gets exhibited worldwide in solo and group shows. Recent solo shows were presented at Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens; Aksioma, Ljibjana; Drugo More, Rijeka. Recent group exhibitions include Ars Electronica, 13th Shanghai Biennale, Transmediale2020, 5th Istanbul Design Biennial, Glass Room San Francisco, Melbourne Triennial, etc). She is a Delfina Foundation alumna (2019), and she has received fellowships such as Allianz Kulturstiftung (2021), Niarchos Artworks fellow (2018), etc. Her latest work Data Garden received the Greek state prize INSPIRE2020.  Her works are part of private and corporate collections. She is a graduate of the Athens School of Fine Arts with an MA in Digital Arts, before which she had pursued a BA and an MSc in Cultural Anthropology and Developmental Sociology from Leiden University. Further info at kyriakigoni.com