cuts_test & corps_checker

Banks are too big to fail. Arts organisations aren't.

Arts Council plans for cuts of up to 30%: "The DCMS has... asked the biggest arts organisations to provide models of how they would implement cuts of 25-30% over four years, and what the effects would be. Arts Council England, which receives £445m to give out to 850 organisations around the country, has warned that it would have to stop funding for at least 200 organisations." Source: The Guardian, 20th July 2010.

cuts_test (2010)

cuts_test keeps watch on the effects of funding cuts. It does this using 'ping' (an automated computer check on whether a website is responding). If the art organisation is online, cuts_test will highlight their logo and report its result. If it fails, it will report this and replace the logo with a blank. cuts_test's companion piece is corps_checker also commissioned by Arnolfini (2008).

corps_checker (2008)

As a service to the artworld, in a time of considerable uncertainty, corps_checker anxiously takes the pulse of the business benefactor. corps_checker is a response to the credit crunch and the inflated promises of the creative economy. A script running on the arnolfini server tests the state of corporate sponsorship by 'pinging' the servers of companies listed on the UK Art & Business web site. Should the company fold as a result of the credit crunch, a negative result will be registered. The work exists as a sort of virtual corporate monitoring organisation watching potential business donors for signs of keeling over. Ultimately the work becomes a test of what lasts longest: capitalism or the software program. The source code is available under the GNU Public License version 3 or later.

http://in-vacua.com/checker.html

Wayne Clements is a visual artist and a writer living in London. His previous works include logo_wiki (2007) and un_wiki (2005).