xyz : introduction

The ecosystem is a practical way to connect up things that we would not otherwise be able to connect in everyday life. e.g. why is our local post office closing when the high street bank announces record profits of several billion pounds. The link between such things may be disguised by today's economic processes which produces large monocultures which we try and then re-animate with 'art' and 'culture'. But if we see ourselves in a workable ecosystem, we may be working very differently.

The network, both human and virtual, can radically change the idea of society, as possibilities emerge both from new forms of participatory culture and social organisation as well as new centralising powers of state and globalisation. Networks may facilitate what is transferable but debates about networks are loose representations of the actual realities of the everyday local resources and communities which ground us.

The complementary encompasses the tools and concepts we use to relate to each other materially. At present the principal tool of social interaction is structured by something virtual and cultural called 'money'. However today's money as currency has little to do with our real needs as almost all money, some 97% of the money in circulation is now produced for purely short-term speculation; everyday some $2000 billion dollars are traded over computer screens but that bears no relationship to the lives of ordinary people. The complementary is a way of visualising money as currency from a different approach. A complementary economy sanctions with all intangibles that make our lives meaningful - communal associations, identity, affiliation etc.

		xyz is so called after the co-ordinates x, y and z that the gps (global positioning system) uses to locate us in reality in this technological age. xyz is also a way of setting out a loose framework for initiating new processes for cultural production. These revolve around 3 concepts : 1 the ecosystem 2 the network 3 the complementary
		The ecosystem is a practical way to connect up things that we would not otherwise be able to connect in everyday life. e.g. why is our local post office closing when the high street bank announces record profits of several billion pounds. The link between such things may be disguised by today's economic processes which produces large monocultures which we try and then re-animate with 'art' and 'culture'. But if we see ourselves in a workable ecosystem, we may be working very differently. The network, both human and virtual, can radically change the idea of society, as possibilities emerge both from new forms of participatory culture and social organisation as well as new centralising powers of state and globalisation. Networks may facilitate what is transferable but debates about networks are loose representations of the actual realities of the everyday local resources and communities which ground us. The complementary encompasses the tools and concepts we use to relate to each other materially. At present the principal tool of social interaction is structured by something virtual and cultural called 'money'. However today's money as currency has little to do with our real needs as almost all money, some 97% of the money in circulation is now produced for purely short-term speculation; everyday some $2000 billion dollars are traded over computer screens but that bears no relationship to the lives of ordinary people. The complementary is a way of visualising money as currency from a different approach. A complementary economy sanctions with all intangibles that make our lives meaningful - communal associations, identity, affiliation etc.
		xyz is a way of using these concepts to create working processes ground-up in living contexts. The processes involve real currencies (fungibles and non-fungibles), cultures (as hosts, communities and spaces) and circulation (of objects, people, information). currencies : cultures : circulation are the 3 c's of xyz. The c's all correspond and circulate. xyz is an open-ended generative project - it does not seek to produce works or objects per se. Parallel processes start and connect through their use within a community or social space or networked space. To initiate the xyz process, the project began with the z bicycle resource with 20 bicycles in London in Autumn 2004. Currently there are 3 processes or threads in development running through xyz (right >).


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