United Micro Kingdoms (UmK)
UmK presents perspectives on a fictional future for the UK. The exhibition sees England divided into four self-contained counties. These ‘live laboratories’ interrogate the cultural and ethical impact of existing and new technologies and how they alter the way we live.
The four micro kingdoms explored:
Digitarians depend on digital technology and all its implicit totalitarianism: tagging, metrics, total surveillance, tracking, data logging and 100% transparency. Their society is organised entirely by market forces; citizen and consumer are the same.
The Communo-nuclearist society is a no-growth, limited population experiment. Using nuclear power to deliver near limitless energy, the state provides everything needed for their continued survival. Although they are energy rich it comes at a price — no one wants to live near them. Under
constant threat of attack or accident, they live on a continually moving, 3 kilometre, nuclear-powered mobile landscape.
The Anarcho-evolutionists abandon most technologies, or at least stop developing them, and concentrate on using science to maximise their own physical capabilities through training, DIY biohacking and self-experimentation. They believe that humans should modify themselves to
exist within the limits of the planet rather than modifying the planet to meet their ever growing needs.
Bioliberals fully embrace biotechnology and the new values that this entails.Biology is at the centre of their world-view, leading to a radically different technological landscape to our own. Each person produces their own energy according to their needs. Bioliberals are essentially farmers, cooks
and gardeners. Not just of plants and food, but of products too. Gardens, kitchens and farms replace factories and workshop.