Kode9: Astro-Darien

About

The story takes place on the servers of video game company Trancestar North in the highlands of Scotland, and follows the thoughts of Guna Yala, lead programmer of a game about Astro-Darien, an orbital space habitat named after the Darien region of Panama. In the late 17th century, Scotland made an ill-fated bid to cash in on Empire by attempting to colonize Darien to capitalise on oceanic trade between the Atlantic and Pacific. Poorly planned and sabotaged by the English and the Spanish, the scheme almost bankrupted the country and contributed to Scotland having to enter into the 1707 Act of Union with England which instantiated the United Kingdom. 

Learning from the repercussions of a failed escape plan over 300 years ago, and a subsequent dark colonial history, Guna tries to program the conditions for a successful 21st century jailbreak into the game engine....

On Friday May 21st, the opening evening, the installation will host a conversation between Kode9 and frequent collaborator Lawrence Lek who contributed some digital animation to the project.

Viewing by appointment only. Contact info@corsicastudios.com to book.

Bio

Kode9 aka Steve Goodman is an artist, writer, DJ and producer.  His installations have been exhibited at the Tate Modern, the Barbican, and with AUDINT, at Arebyte gallery among others. He has recorded 3 albums, 2 with the late vocalist The Spaceape; Memories of Future (2006) and Black Sun (2010), and a solo album, Nothing (2015) and numerous DJ mix compilations. He runs the record labels Hyperdub (2004) and Flatlines (2018) and co-curated the Ø series of monthly events at Corsica Studios in South London. His book ‘Sonic Warfare’ was published on MIT Press in 2009 and with AUDINT he co-edited the book ‘Unsound: Undead’ for Urbanomic Press in 2019.