Notions of Expediture

2004-2005. Website, and 200 posters of 10 proposals installed on Chicago Transit Authority subway trains.

This project was conceived in response to the Iraq war, to extreme discrepancies in wealth both between nations and within our own privileged one, and to excesses of both consumption and production. The project solicited speculative proposals to re-design exercise equipment to generate and store energy; and/or to retrofit gyms to function as local power sources linked to the grid. The initiative drew attention to everyday energy use, and the links between daily practices and larger social and political events and policies. Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois sponsored the website and supported the CTA deployment.

Participants: Anonymous, Jeremy and Jamie Boyle, Heather Clark and Clay Ward, Jeanne Dunning, Beate Engl, Marc Herbst, Wendy Jacob, D. Johnson, Louise Lamb, Carole Lung, Ben Nicholson, Raj Pandian, Gene Pool

excerpt from original website