Shipping

By container (from Scotland to South Africa, via China, USA, Brazil, Japan, Singapore & England)
Multimedia / multiplatform journalism project (2008-9): The BBC paints a 40' shipping container with its distinctive livery and logo. They attach a GPS transmitted to follow its travels over land and sea. Each time it is loaded or unloaded, its journalists meet the workers, consumers and others whose lives are connected through its travels. What they find is logged live on an interactive map. Ship-spotters are tasked to find and photgraph it. A unique high-tech collaborative research project emerges. What can it tell us? Click for more...

By container ship (from Japan to Canada)
Electronic 'docupop' music: (2010): NATO's art division commissions electronic musicians Icbreaker International to create on board a container ship a musical celebratation of 'free trade'. It's a concept album that samples audio from its travels (including squawking seagulls) as well as ideological soundbites from champions of unregulated markets. Its tracks include 'Port of Dubai' and 'The Third Way'. Its purpose is educational and people agree it vividly evokes its subject, whether it's a genuine piece of work or an elaborate prank. Click for more...