Thomas Selby

Basildon in Essex is now a key strategic site at the centre of global equities trade. Unbeknown to its 170,400 residents, £11.9  billion of global trade passes through its midst each day, via the New York Stock Exchange’s datacenter.

Gaming the Plumbing explores the junction between Basildon, and the next stage in the frenetic pursuit of high frequency trading; predicted to be via the use of neutrino particles to beam financial data through the earth between stock exchanges. This race to shave fractions of a second off trade times has culminated in firms carving through mountains, oceans and currently, arctic ice at the cost of tens of billions of pounds. In contrast, Basildon’s failed New Town ambitions are epitomised by its town centre, littered with sparse public squares, empty shop units and superfluous carparks.

Presently, the people of Basildon have no frame of reference to interrogate or interact with the reality of the abstract, hyper-mobile capital flows that are located on their doorstep; flows that are now operated by algorithms rather than humans, far beyond experiential thresholds. They remain totally disconnected and unaffected.

The project challenges tis current state of affairs and proposes that Basildon Council acts to seize upon the window of opportunity presented by the flows of capital passing through it by leveraging the assets that already exist. This is articulated through through the provision a series of civic spaces that seek to convey the drama of financial flows and hint at Basildon’s international significance; while also integrate the abstraction in a functional manner into the lives of Basildon's residents.