Exhibitions / 04

Planning a world together

Information, allocation and the question of control.

Original interpretive vector study. Not a reproduction of the museum object.

A system becomes visible

A coupon makes a rule tangible. A chart makes a relation visible. An information system offers a way to coordinate many activities. None is merely technical: categories, priorities and access are choices about how people will live.

The promise of coordination

Cybersyn sought an experimental path through information and economic decision-making in Chile. Put its interface beside the material choices of the Trabant and the small rules on a ration document. The gallery asks what it would mean to organise resources around shared needs, while refusing to mistake a control room for control by the people.

Make room for a reply

A just system needs more than accurate reporting. People must be able to challenge a category, describe a missing need and change a decision. Listening is the thread that connects a portable radio to a planning interface: whose voice travels back, and what happens when it disagrees?