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Ecosystm, by John Klima, is a three-dimensional videogame made from digital representations of shares and currencies. Financial securities are presented as birds that change their flight according to their price, provoking a reflection about the volatility of the markets.

The installation offers visitors the chance to pilot a ship.By moving the hand control and pressing the buttons we can change our position in space: right, left, up and down. We are in control of a first person videogame, like Doom or the classic Microsoft Flight Simulator. Spurred on by the sensation of control, we take up the control again and begin to explore. What do we see? A sky full of bright colours – green, purple and orange. Clouds. Below us a semi-spherical shape which looks like the earth. In the distance we can make out groups of dots moving in a rhythmic fashion. We head towards them. As we get closer they take on physical form: they look like birds, but a peculiar kind of bird. Without neck or beak. Made of just wings and a body. They look like a flock of mutant birds. We are ignorant of whether they are dangerous, or where they are leading us. A disturbing sight, one that reminds us that finance is an unknown land.

Our curiosity overcomes our caution, and we approach even closer. As we do so, we realize that each bird has a number on its underside. Next to the number is an indicator which reads “German Mark”, “US Dollar”, “Japanese Yen” and “Pound Sterling”. So, we see that each bird represents a different currency, and the number beside it represents its exchange rate. Each bird flies higher or lower according to variations in the currency. In this way, the volatility of international currency markets is reflected in the flight of these digital birds.

Ecosystm explores a variety of elements characterizing present-day stock markets. Firstly, the idea of volatility, reflected by the birds highs and lows as they soar through the atmosphere. Volatility is a central part of the international financial system since the fall of the Breton Woods fixed monetary system in 1971.

Despite the arguments of the liberal defenders of free fluctuation to the effect that this would assist economic adjustment, over the last three decades fluctuation has brought with it speculation and chaotic episodes of devaluation. Among others, the expulsion of sterling from the European monetary system in 1993 by George Soros; the dramatic devaluation of the Mexican peso in 1994 and the subsequent contagion, or tequila effect, of other Latin-American currencies; the Asian devaluation in 1997, which cast the region into crisis and unemployment; and the devaluation of the Argentinian peso in 2004 which led to riots, social unrest and the corralito banking scandal.

Secondly, Ecosystm highlights the idea of navigating through the markets. The visitor pilots a figurative ship from which he or she may watch, in first person, the journey of flocks of financial securities. The ornithology of these birds –their flight path and their relationship with each other– reveals a way of understanding the market. This navigation is made more interesting by featuring meteorological conditions provided in real time by weather reports from JFK airport in New York.

The installations emphasis on navigation invites the visitor to reflect on the growing importance of financial visualization. Nowadays visualization is part and parcel of the work of a stockbroker. An original representation allows one to interpret the data in a new light and see business opportunities overlooked by others. The work of performing in the markets has moved on from being essentially social to being technological too, from remote to inclusive, and from static to dynamic. Ecosystm extrapolates these trends into a future where working in the markets is equivalent to piloting through a virtual universe.

As its title suggests, Ecosystm presents the markets as interrelated systems of living beings, in other words, an ecosystem.Financial securities do not appear as inert objects, but as three-dimensional lifeforms. This is made clear by the behavioural patterns of the flocks of birds: when volatility is low, the flocks are stable and fly across the region in an expansive way. When the currency turns volatile, however, the flock tenses and its territory is reduced. If volatility rises even higher, reaching twice the annual rate, the flocks become hungry and eat from the stock market indexes of their countries, represented by trees. In situations of exceptional volatility, in other words, three times the yearly average, the species become aggressive and attack other species.

Ecosystm was created in 2000, commissioned by the Swiss financial firm Zurich Capital Markets. It was exhibited for the first time at the Daejeon Municipal Museum of Art in South Korea. In 2001, it was shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In its current version, the real time connection with the stock markets is now history, since the European Monetary Union of 2001 meant the disappearance of many of the currencies used in the installation.

This piece is one of many others in the distinguished career of digital artist John Klima. Based in New York, Klima explores political issues, such as the environment or September 11, in interactive installations and new media. He has exhibited his work at the Whitney Foundation, the PS1 MoMA, the Whitney Artport and the New Museum of Contemporary Art of New Chelsea. In Spain, Klima has exhibited his work at the Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo in Badajoz, at the Mediafest in Gran Canarias, and the CiberArts-Bilbao. Klima is also adjunct professor and researcher at New York University, Rhode Island School of Design and BrooklynPolytechnicUniversity.