Two specially commissioned art works have just been unveiled as part of the MyChainReaction project, an ESRC Impact Accelerator funded research project conducted Professor Janet Godsell, Professor of Supply Chain Strategy and Management at WMG and Ruth Leary, Centre for Cultural Policy Studies.

The MyChainReaction project was designed to investigate the public state of knowledge and understanding about supply chains and how we interact with them on a daily basis. “The project’s success depends on public participation; the artistic commissions are critical to raising awareness and inviting people to reflect on the issues and stories that participants are sharing with us,” says Ruth.

The research team invited submissions from artists and arts organisations in response to the project’s themes and initial findings and winning proposals from Pangaea Poetry and Unfold beat off stiff competition in the process.

The commissions were showcased at the Global Supply Chain Debate hosted at the International Digital Laboratory from 10^th-11^th November 2015.

Pangaea Poetry is a group of poets based in the West Midlands who use a combination of the spoken word and digital technology to bring poetry to more people. They developed a series of short videos containing elements of performance, audio and visual effects reflecting the MyChainReaction project’s emergent themes. The poets performed live at the welcome reception provoking laughter and nodding heads as their performances explored sustainability, mental health, the circular economy and public ignorance of supply chains. Pangea is also conducting a number of practical workshops for WMG Academy for Young Engineers, the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs and the general public (dates to be confirmed). They have also engaged Coventry Transport museum in hosting a semi-permanent exhibit of the poems through sound boxes. You can watch all of the poems on YouTube here.

In contrast, Unfold, is a collective of designers and creative technologists from backgrounds such as cognitive science, creative coding and design and festival production. Using design thinking, data mapping and laser cutting techniques they built LINK, a captivating physical installation that signifies the data and dynamics of two supply chains from flooring company Altro and Chep, a pallet company whose pallets are used for transporting billions of products all over the world, every single day.

Speaking about the commissions Professor Godsell explains, “When we launched MyChainReaction it was with the aim to both measure and increase levels of public knowledge and understanding of what a supply chain is and how we, as individuals, are an integral part of them locally, nationally and beyond.

“The artistic commissions are integral to this aim and we are delighted to be working with two such innovative organisations who have taken a very different approach to the brief. Pangaea had really thought through how to engage a broader audience with supply chains and their proposal represented an exciting transmedia approach with physical, virtual, social and printed representations of the supply chain themes.

“Meanwhile, Unfold, who will be working on their commission in collaboration with WMG, represent a group of challenging and critical creative practitioners whose proposal embodied so many of the key messages from the study and encompassed a range of highly creative ways to bring them to life.”

Carl Sealeaf from Pangaea Poetry adds, “We were absolutely thrilled to hear that we had been selected. We really want our project to inspire people to think creatively and actively about their involvement in, and influence over supply chains, and for them to make more considered choices by better understanding the significance supply chains play in their lives, and how they can influence supply chains in a way that’s beneficial to the world.”

Philo van Kemenade from Unfold concludes, “This is a very unique opportunity to get involved in a forward thinking research project. MyChainReaction already makes the concept of supply chains personal by letting people share stories that are relevant to them. Through our work we want to take this one step further; we have visualised pieces of data and the relationships between them to make characteristics of a system intuitively accessible.”

Delegates at the Global Supply Chain Debate were genuinely surprised and inspired by the commissions:

Jan and Ruth hope that the work will continue to inspire and engage a wider public in a debate about why supply chains matter. Why not join the conversation and add your story to the MyChainReaction website?