Forkonomy() - How can one buy or own a millilitre of the South China Sea? - Winnie Soon & Tzu-Tung Lee

Forkonomy() is an art and activist project that critically explores sovereignty and ownership through a speculative question: can one buy or own a millilitre of the South China Sea? Despite being one of the world’s busiest waterways for international trade, the South China Sea is also among the most contested, with overlapping territorial claims from China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and others. These competing claims over its rocks, reefs, and undersea resources make the oceanic space not just geographically significant, but also economically, militarily, and politically charged.

In the exhibition Unsettling the Algorithm: Seeds of Resistance, Winnie Soon and Tzu Tung Lee present a Forkonomy() meditation guide that invites audiences to reflect on the underlying tensions of the sea. Accompanying this are video documentations of the artists' symbolic act of "pirating" water from the South China Sea. A printed digital contract registered on the blockchain is also displayed, further emphasizing the work's engagement with contemporary issues of ownership and legality.

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These are the sources to produce the meditation audio in Forkonomy():

1. China Navy to BBC: 'Stay away from islands' - BBC News, 16 December 2015 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVeKbEgn50o)
2. South China Sea: 'Leave immediately and keep far off' - BBC News, 11 Aug 2018 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dodbqgKn8js)
3. Listen to the sounds of the South China Sea - Fangchenggang's offshore oyster farm and border coast - CGTN, 11 May 2021 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8nDRVq4T-c&t=88s)
4. Listen to the sounds of the South China Sea — Waves, birds and mountain in Shenzhen City - CGTN, 11 May 2021 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gWpHYBKRjI)
5. Footage shows further live-fire Chinese military drills in the South China Sea and Xinjiang province - The Sun, 12 August 2022 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAC0agmtRxQ)
6. Hear Chinese warning to US plane in midair over South China sea - CNN, 23 Feburary 2023 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8uKCCs44oY)
7. How The Philippines makes the Invasion of Taiwan so difficult: The Bashi Channel -
   Kamome, 30 April 2023 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRK2NuzVtH8)
8. How China’s ‘Salami Slicing’ Tactics Spark South China Sea Tensions | WSJ U.S. vs. China - The Wall Street Journal, 18 May 2023 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwtnFTWs4zk)
9. Philippines marks 7th anniversary of South China Sea ruling, edited by
   Jojo Riñoza and Gerard Carreon - by Benar News, 12 July, 2023 (link: https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/philippine/sea-anniversary-07122023141123.html)
10. Demonstrators in the Philippines commemorate anniversary of South China Sea ruling - BenarNews, 12 July 2023 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDgFbyA0geI&t=6s)
11. Philippines summons Chinese envoy over water-cannon incident in disputed waters, edited by BenarNews staff, 7 August 2023 (link: https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/philippine/second-thomas-ayungin-shoal-incident-08072023124142.html)
12. Chinese vessels harass Philippine vessels in South China Sea - BenarNews, 7 August 2023 (link: https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/philippine/second-thomas-ayungin-shoal-incident-08072023124142.html)
13. Al Jazeera witnesses South China Sea confrontation | Al Jazeera Newsfeed -
    Al Jazeera English, 14 September 2023 (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIjt4jnvvqI)

*note: The count in the meditation audio guide reflects the actual number of aircraft that passed over Taiwan during September 1 to October 18 in 2021. {ref: The skies over the South China Sea by Gerry Doyle, Anand Katakam, Ben Blanchard and Marco Hernandez - Reuters, 19 October 2021 (link: https://www.reuters.com/graphics/TAIWAN-CHINA/byvrjrmgnve/)}