Saturday, 22 March
09:30 – 10:00 – Doors open
09:30 – 18:00 – Floor -1 : Alternatives Bazaar opens for the entire day & Film program loop (Cinema Hall)
10:00 – 11:45 – Session 5: Bitcoin and Beyond
11:45 – 12:00 – Tea break
12:00 – 13:00 – Session 6: Alternatives Bazaar on Stage
13:00 – 14:00 – Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30 – Session 7: Critique of Crowdfunding
15:30 – 16:00 – Tea break
16:00 – 17:45 – Session 8: Designing Alternatives
Saturday, 22 March
09:30 – 10:00 Doors open, coffee and tea
09:30 – 18:00 Alternatives Bazaar is open
A number of organizations involved with alternative finance/currencies will be present throughout the day, looking forward to meet visitors for acquaintance, discussion, exchange of ideas and advice during the breaks or sessions. Each organization is presenting a different type of exhibition, from books and flyers to visual installations and experiments. Come and meet the people directly engaged with alternatives, and get involved!
The participating Alternatives Bazaar organizations are:
>>Bitcoin Automated Teller Machine is developed and built by two students from Enschede who believe in the power of this new technology. The machine is built to bring the cryptocurrency to people without the need of any technical knowledge. Getting into Bitcoin has been made easy with only three steps. Learn what these are at the Bazaar!
>>Noppes (www.noppes.nl) is is an Amsterdam-based alternative currency that is used to exchange goods and services for 20 years. It is also the name given to the group of hundreds of people who trade through this digital unit without interest. Noppes is a slang for “Nothing”. Noppes users, or “Noppers”, value personal contact, a small environmental footprint and some independence from the international banking system. Knowledge, services and goods are exchanged the way they would be in large families or in a village where neighbors help each other out, knowing that the help will be returned. Noppes is completely independent of subsidies and/or sponsors.
>>Peerby (www.peerby.com) is a website and iPhone app that enables people to borrow the things they need from others in their neighborhood in 30 minutes. Save money, live green and meet awesome people!
>>Qoin (www.qoin.org) is a pioneering social enterprise based in Amsterdam, providing consultancy on all aspects of setting up community currencies worldwide. Qoin supports public authorities, businesses, financial institutions and citizens to realize their goals around the social economy, entrepreneurship, environmental responsibility and healthy government finance through community currencies. Community currencies are money at service of people and the planet. They are instruments designed to fulfill specific social, environmental or economic objectives. Qoin has contributed to the development of community currencies including the Bristol Pound, Brixton Pound, Makkie, TradeQoin and WeHelpen.
>>Art Reserve Bank (www.kunstreservebank.nl) is a monetary experiment set up by artists and economists to test the viability of a new reserve currency. Since 2012 every week a new coin is designed by the current artists. This currency is minted in public with the bank’s own coin press, that is now based in the city centre of Eindhoven. Every coin is issued for one week only. The exchange rate varies and is set by the trade value of the coins already in circulation. At the MoneyLab Bazaar you are able to buy the latest design.
>>Share NL (www.sharenl.nl)
ACTIVITIES
COMMUNITY : informs and inspires individuals
COMPANIES : connects and represents entrepreneurs who are engaged in the sharing economy
CONSULT : consults corporate organizations and governmental institutions
&
CO.LAB : facilitates through knowledge, research and publications
CONFERENCE : brings together entrepreneurs, corporate & governmental institutions
CONCEPTS : co-creates innovative concepts
COMMUNITY : informs and inspires individuals
COMPANIES : connects and represents entrepreneurs who are engaged in the sharing economy
CONSULT : consults corporate organizations and governmental institutions
&
CO.LAB : facilitates through knowledge, research and publications
CONFERENCE : brings together entrepreneurs, corporate & governmental institutions
CONCEPTS : co-creates innovative concepts
SHARING ECONOMY
‘One of the 10 ideas that will change the world’ – TIME
‘One of the 10 ideas that will change the world’ – TIME
>>The Next Nature Network (www.nextnature.net) explores how our technological environment has become so omnipresent, complex, intimate and autonomous that it has become a nature of its own. At Moneylab they present their proposal for an ECO currency, a monetary value that makes environmental value explicit.
>>Timebank CC (www.timebank.cc) is a tool, accessible to everyone, to help, work and cooperate with each other. Users can exchange skills and services using time rather than conventional money. One Timebank Hour equals exactly one hour of work. The services for which Timebank mediates range from piano tuning to programming web applications, from bicycle repair to business consultancy. Timebank.cc is an independent association founded in 2013. It is an open platform that facilitates and encourages user-initiated projects on parallel economies. With users mainly in The Hague, Amsterdam and Lisbon, the community has grown into an active network of over 1200 users.
>>Transition Towns Netherlands (www.transitiontowns.nl) is the Dutch branch of the global Transition Network. This international organization has thousands of local grassroots initiatives (in 45 countries on all continents) working on the transition from oil dependency to local resilience. Today, TT Netherland offers its services to about 85 local initiatives. Transition initiatives are creating numerous educational and practical projects in a wide range of areas, such as the relocalisation of the economy, food production, sustainable energy, health, well-being, education, water, housing and transport. At the Alternatives Bazaar, TT Nederland will present the REconomy Project, which is aimed at a thorough relocalisation of the economy.
>>geheimagentur / Theatre of Research (www.geheimagentur.net)(www.fundus-theater.de)
For geheimagentur and Theatre of Research there was one thing about the financial crisis that seemed more important than everything else: to learn that banks in fact create their own money. Alongside the respective criticism on the topic, we were also jealous that banks could do this. Therefore, we turned our ambitions to making the same thing ourselves. Yet how could we learn to create our own money? We got advice from the most successful community bankers in the world: our friends from Banco Palmas Brasil and those from the NEF (New Economic Foundation) in London. We started our own banks: the SCHWARZBANK (in the bankrupt city of Oberhausen) and the KINDERBANK (in Hamburg, where one of five children has to deal with poverty). Now, three years later, we want to share our experiences and to search for an alternative digital currency, that might work for the trans-European network of real democracy activists.
For geheimagentur and Theatre of Research there was one thing about the financial crisis that seemed more important than everything else: to learn that banks in fact create their own money. Alongside the respective criticism on the topic, we were also jealous that banks could do this. Therefore, we turned our ambitions to making the same thing ourselves. Yet how could we learn to create our own money? We got advice from the most successful community bankers in the world: our friends from Banco Palmas Brasil and those from the NEF (New Economic Foundation) in London. We started our own banks: the SCHWARZBANK (in the bankrupt city of Oberhausen) and the KINDERBANK (in Hamburg, where one of five children has to deal with poverty). Now, three years later, we want to share our experiences and to search for an alternative digital currency, that might work for the trans-European network of real democracy activists.
Film program loop (floor -1, Cinema Hall)
TRANSFORMONEY 2.0 – A film by Daniel Nogueira and Dadara
MON3Y as an 3RRROR | MON3Y.US – Curated & happened by Vasily Zaitsev (M0us310n.net)
BITCOIN CLOUD – Film by Artistic Technology Research // Tarasiewicz/Gurresch/Repp // (www.bitcoincloud.at)
SLIDES FROM THE MONEY AND ART LIVING ARCHIVE – Curated by Max Haiven, Assistant Professor, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (moneyandart.tumblr.com)
MON3Y as an 3RRROR | MON3Y.US – Curated & happened by Vasily Zaitsev (M0us310n.net)
BITCOIN CLOUD – Film by Artistic Technology Research // Tarasiewicz/Gurresch/Repp // (www.bitcoincloud.at)
SLIDES FROM THE MONEY AND ART LIVING ARCHIVE – Curated by Max Haiven, Assistant Professor, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (moneyandart.tumblr.com)
10:00 – 11:45 Session 5 : Bitcoin and Beyond
Session description:
The internet currency Bitcoin would benefit from a differently-angled inquiry – a debate that moves away from the overrated media narratives and dedicated forums. This session first accommodates a historical perspective on encrypted and anonymous payments that first started with e-cash and Digicash in 1990s, in order to position Bitcoin within a broader context and development. This is followed by discussions on Bitcoin’s pragmatic, but less controversial functions and implications. Bitcoin stands as a real attempt to radically redesign global finance. Like the current order, Bitcoin privileges specific forms of exchange and monetary models (such as the gold standard). Bitcoin is currency as Weltanschauung. And like all systems, it is producing its own animal spirits. Will it be possible for Bitcoin to scale up beyond the geek economy? What are the technical and economic criticisms of Bitcoin, and how can they be fed back into the currency or be used to create others? Is Bitcoin the ‘make or break it’ for alternative crypto-currencies, or is it possible to imagine a future currency market?
The internet currency Bitcoin would benefit from a differently-angled inquiry – a debate that moves away from the overrated media narratives and dedicated forums. This session first accommodates a historical perspective on encrypted and anonymous payments that first started with e-cash and Digicash in 1990s, in order to position Bitcoin within a broader context and development. This is followed by discussions on Bitcoin’s pragmatic, but less controversial functions and implications. Bitcoin stands as a real attempt to radically redesign global finance. Like the current order, Bitcoin privileges specific forms of exchange and monetary models (such as the gold standard). Bitcoin is currency as Weltanschauung. And like all systems, it is producing its own animal spirits. Will it be possible for Bitcoin to scale up beyond the geek economy? What are the technical and economic criticisms of Bitcoin, and how can they be fed back into the currency or be used to create others? Is Bitcoin the ‘make or break it’ for alternative crypto-currencies, or is it possible to imagine a future currency market?
Moderators: Nathaniel Tkacz and Lana Swartz
Speakers:
>> Eduard de Jong (NL)
Cash or Currency: an overview of electronic payment technology
Bitcoin has recently been stirring up lots of attention for electronic payments. Electronic payment already has quite a history: in Europe, the first forms of electronic payment emerged with phone cards around 30 years ago. e-Cash, an electronic cash technology invented by David Chaum, was implemented in 1991. In subsequent years many electronic payment initiatives arose in many parts of the world, with names like Mondex and DanMønt (DanCoin), Geldkarte, ChipKnip and n-Count. The emergence of NFC as short-range contactless communication, and smartphones as advanced user interface devices, has given a new impulse to electronic payment after the lacklustre take-up of earlier initiatives. This talk looks at the history of electronic payment and identifies common properties. It defines the key aspects to be realized securely in any system of electronic payment. The talk concludes by with an analysis of Bitcoin in the light of these insights.
Cash or Currency: an overview of electronic payment technology
Bitcoin has recently been stirring up lots of attention for electronic payments. Electronic payment already has quite a history: in Europe, the first forms of electronic payment emerged with phone cards around 30 years ago. e-Cash, an electronic cash technology invented by David Chaum, was implemented in 1991. In subsequent years many electronic payment initiatives arose in many parts of the world, with names like Mondex and DanMønt (DanCoin), Geldkarte, ChipKnip and n-Count. The emergence of NFC as short-range contactless communication, and smartphones as advanced user interface devices, has given a new impulse to electronic payment after the lacklustre take-up of earlier initiatives. This talk looks at the history of electronic payment and identifies common properties. It defines the key aspects to be realized securely in any system of electronic payment. The talk concludes by with an analysis of Bitcoin in the light of these insights.
>> Aaron Koenig (DE)
Why Bitcoin is Better Than Central Bank Money
The current monetary system is evil. When central banks can manipulate the money supply, the devaluation of money is inevitable. Only those close to the artificial source of money being created ‘out of thin air’ benefit from this, while everyone else’s money loses value. Government monopolies on money are a relatively new phenomenon. For thousands of years, naturally scarce metals such as gold and silver were the basis for currencies – banknotes were simply receipts for precious metals. Fiat money, which is only backed by governmental force, has allowed skyrocketing government debt and fuelled countless economic bubbles. It is only a matter of time before this system, in which debts are paid by new debts and a few people make huge profits at the expense of many others, collapses like a house of cards. Bitcoin has many of the qualities of gold; it is decentralized, stateless, free market money. Moreover, Bitcoin is a global payment system that allows direct transactions from human to human, with no need for banks or government regulations. Can decentralised money replace today’s failed financial system?
Why Bitcoin is Better Than Central Bank Money
The current monetary system is evil. When central banks can manipulate the money supply, the devaluation of money is inevitable. Only those close to the artificial source of money being created ‘out of thin air’ benefit from this, while everyone else’s money loses value. Government monopolies on money are a relatively new phenomenon. For thousands of years, naturally scarce metals such as gold and silver were the basis for currencies – banknotes were simply receipts for precious metals. Fiat money, which is only backed by governmental force, has allowed skyrocketing government debt and fuelled countless economic bubbles. It is only a matter of time before this system, in which debts are paid by new debts and a few people make huge profits at the expense of many others, collapses like a house of cards. Bitcoin has many of the qualities of gold; it is decentralized, stateless, free market money. Moreover, Bitcoin is a global payment system that allows direct transactions from human to human, with no need for banks or government regulations. Can decentralised money replace today’s failed financial system?
>> Beat Weber (AT)
Overcoming the legitimacy crisis of money with Bitcoin?
Fuelled by the legitimacy crisis of the current monetary and financial system in the wake of the recent economic crisis, Bitcoin has gained much attention in recent years. While speculative trading and Bitcoin’s suspected use in non-legal activities have been at the centre of popular discussion, the project’s ambitions are larger. It claims to offer an alternative monetary and payment system. What can we infer from economic theory for these claims?
Overcoming the legitimacy crisis of money with Bitcoin?
Fuelled by the legitimacy crisis of the current monetary and financial system in the wake of the recent economic crisis, Bitcoin has gained much attention in recent years. While speculative trading and Bitcoin’s suspected use in non-legal activities have been at the centre of popular discussion, the project’s ambitions are larger. It claims to offer an alternative monetary and payment system. What can we infer from economic theory for these claims?
>> Quinn DuPont (CA)
From order to control: how cryptography functions in Bitcoin
Quinn DuPont explores the cryptographic aspects of Bitcoin. He suggests that cryptography can be re-imagined and re-conceptualized, putting forth an alternative to the dominant view that cryptography is secrecy. He argues that we can fruitfully view cryptography as a discrete notational scheme. As a notational scheme, cryptography has the potential to reorder representations of the world in subtle but powerful ways. By looking at the use of Bitcoin cryptography in the light of this re-conceptualization, DuPont suggests that Bitcoin functions as a new weapon in our control society.
From order to control: how cryptography functions in Bitcoin
Quinn DuPont explores the cryptographic aspects of Bitcoin. He suggests that cryptography can be re-imagined and re-conceptualized, putting forth an alternative to the dominant view that cryptography is secrecy. He argues that we can fruitfully view cryptography as a discrete notational scheme. As a notational scheme, cryptography has the potential to reorder representations of the world in subtle but powerful ways. By looking at the use of Bitcoin cryptography in the light of this re-conceptualization, DuPont suggests that Bitcoin functions as a new weapon in our control society.
11:45 – 12:00 Tea break
12:00 – 13:00 Session 6: Alternatives Bazaar on Stage
Practice is complementary to theory, and we cannot debate alternative finance models without being aware of actual practices and developments. The Alternatives Bazaar hosts a number of prominent organizations directly involved in creating, implementing and building communities around their ideas. In this session, the organizations exhibiting at MoneyLab Alternatives Bazaar will pitch their projects on stage to the audience.
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30 Session 7: Critique of Crowdfunding
Session Description:
Seeking to bypass government patronage, venture capitalists and other intermediaries, crowdfunding has become a boutique industry – there are at least 120 platforms in the Netherlands alone. Serving for-profit and non-profit organizations of different constituencies and goals, many claim to raise millions per year. Practice advances quickly, and literature on the topic abounds in self-marketing tips. However, failure is more frequent than success: more than half of all Kickstarter projects fail. Crowdfunding has an inner dynamic that remains unknown. What, then, are the critical issues we should address? This session will look into how crowdfunding is signalling an entire cultural shift, especially in art production and artists’ relationships with their audiences. It will also tackle some lesser-known shortcomings of crowdfunding – from time and effort investment, the artist’s unwillingly assumed role of marketeer, and the debatable existence of an ‘actual crowd’.
Seeking to bypass government patronage, venture capitalists and other intermediaries, crowdfunding has become a boutique industry – there are at least 120 platforms in the Netherlands alone. Serving for-profit and non-profit organizations of different constituencies and goals, many claim to raise millions per year. Practice advances quickly, and literature on the topic abounds in self-marketing tips. However, failure is more frequent than success: more than half of all Kickstarter projects fail. Crowdfunding has an inner dynamic that remains unknown. What, then, are the critical issues we should address? This session will look into how crowdfunding is signalling an entire cultural shift, especially in art production and artists’ relationships with their audiences. It will also tackle some lesser-known shortcomings of crowdfunding – from time and effort investment, the artist’s unwillingly assumed role of marketeer, and the debatable existence of an ‘actual crowd’.
Moderator: Brett Scott
Speakers:
>> Inge Ejbye Sørensen (DK)
Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing in the UK – Peer to Peer or Mine to Mine?
Sørensen compares traditional and new ways of co-funding and co-creating documentary film and theatrical features in the UK, and asks what it is that digital financing forms, like crowdfunding, pay-if-you-want schemes and online distribution sites mean for documentary and feature films and their industries today. As crowdfunding and crowdsourcing enter the mainstream, Sørensen explores the possibilities and problems that these new financing, cultural and creative practices present for producers, traditional funding models, and national funders and policies. Are new digital production and financing forms democratizing film production in the UK, or rather paving the way for new cultural elites, gatekeepers and hierarchies? Do these new creative and funding models enrich the creative industries, or are they a symptom of the beginning of an erosion of arts funding in the UK? Following the money as well as the cultural capital in a wider socio-economic context, Sørensen will ask who really benefits from crowdfunded and crowdsourced projects.
Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing in the UK – Peer to Peer or Mine to Mine?
Sørensen compares traditional and new ways of co-funding and co-creating documentary film and theatrical features in the UK, and asks what it is that digital financing forms, like crowdfunding, pay-if-you-want schemes and online distribution sites mean for documentary and feature films and their industries today. As crowdfunding and crowdsourcing enter the mainstream, Sørensen explores the possibilities and problems that these new financing, cultural and creative practices present for producers, traditional funding models, and national funders and policies. Are new digital production and financing forms democratizing film production in the UK, or rather paving the way for new cultural elites, gatekeepers and hierarchies? Do these new creative and funding models enrich the creative industries, or are they a symptom of the beginning of an erosion of arts funding in the UK? Following the money as well as the cultural capital in a wider socio-economic context, Sørensen will ask who really benefits from crowdfunded and crowdsourced projects.
>> Jamie King (UK)
Rethinking the film industry: crowdfunding and online distribution channels
King’s film series Steal this film and Steal this film II tackle the controversies around copyright in the creative industry sector. King has successfully crowdfunded his productions (also allowing donations with Bitcoins), which have been viewed more than 5 million times via P2P file-sharing torrents. He also launched VODO, a successful, pay-as-you-want online distribution channel. He will discuss his experience as an artist using crowdfunding and online distribution as new instruments of both production and revenue.
Rethinking the film industry: crowdfunding and online distribution channels
King’s film series Steal this film and Steal this film II tackle the controversies around copyright in the creative industry sector. King has successfully crowdfunded his productions (also allowing donations with Bitcoins), which have been viewed more than 5 million times via P2P file-sharing torrents. He also launched VODO, a successful, pay-as-you-want online distribution channel. He will discuss his experience as an artist using crowdfunding and online distribution as new instruments of both production and revenue.
>> Marijke Hoogeboom (NL)
Changing notions of crowds and funding in the performing arts in the Netherlands and beyond
Unfortunately, Marijke Hoogenboom will not be presenting at MoneyLab.
Changing notions of crowds and funding in the performing arts in the Netherlands and beyond
Unfortunately, Marijke Hoogenboom will not be presenting at MoneyLab.
>> Irina Enache (RO) and Robert van Boeschoten (NL)
Visualizing crowdfunding and beyond
This presentation will introduce MoneyLab’s interactive Crowdfunding Visual Toolkit. Its database gathers Dutch and international crowdfunding platforms serving creative projects. It allows potential crowdfunders to select relevant criteria, such as their project category (visual arts, performing arts, music, tech, etc), the model they want to use (donation, investment), and the budget size. Then they can filter and sort according to certain statistics made publicly available (average number of funders / success ratio on the platform / average donation, etc) and thus visualize the platforms that answer the project’s needs. The visual toolkit is accompanied by insights from a number of interviews with artists and creative workers who have crowdfunded and now share their challenges. These experiences are often undocumented, although they have the potential to reveal much about crowdfunding mechanisms and implications. The scope of the MoneyLab Crowdfunding Toolkit goes beyond visualization and insights. It is a proposal for a long-term, close collaboration between academics, designers, artists and entrepreneurs, as well as crowdfunding platforms founders and policy-makers to further inquire into the sustainability of crowdfunding as a revenue model.
Visualizing crowdfunding and beyond
This presentation will introduce MoneyLab’s interactive Crowdfunding Visual Toolkit. Its database gathers Dutch and international crowdfunding platforms serving creative projects. It allows potential crowdfunders to select relevant criteria, such as their project category (visual arts, performing arts, music, tech, etc), the model they want to use (donation, investment), and the budget size. Then they can filter and sort according to certain statistics made publicly available (average number of funders / success ratio on the platform / average donation, etc) and thus visualize the platforms that answer the project’s needs. The visual toolkit is accompanied by insights from a number of interviews with artists and creative workers who have crowdfunded and now share their challenges. These experiences are often undocumented, although they have the potential to reveal much about crowdfunding mechanisms and implications. The scope of the MoneyLab Crowdfunding Toolkit goes beyond visualization and insights. It is a proposal for a long-term, close collaboration between academics, designers, artists and entrepreneurs, as well as crowdfunding platforms founders and policy-makers to further inquire into the sustainability of crowdfunding as a revenue model.
15:30 – 16:00 Tea break
16:00 – 17:45 Session 8: Designing Alternatives
Session description:
Alternatives to the current monetary systems have been around for a long time. We are discussing not just currencies themselves, but also alternative ways of trading, understanding value, and communicating. This session looks into developments as old as the 1930s, moves up to the 1990s and its first e-cash payments, delves into today’s social, technical and art practices in relation to money, and inquires into what we are missing in today’s landscape. Who designs alternatives, and for which constituencies? Can we see a collective imagination arising here?
Alternatives to the current monetary systems have been around for a long time. We are discussing not just currencies themselves, but also alternative ways of trading, understanding value, and communicating. This session looks into developments as old as the 1930s, moves up to the 1990s and its first e-cash payments, delves into today’s social, technical and art practices in relation to money, and inquires into what we are missing in today’s landscape. Who designs alternatives, and for which constituencies? Can we see a collective imagination arising here?
Moderator: Rob van Hilten
Speakers:
>> Matthew Slater (UK)What about credit? Bitcoin is only half of the revolution
Trusted or powerful central authorities have been issuing tokens for the people to exchange for as long as states and empires have existed. But too easily we forget the other half of money, which has been equally present throughout history: credit money. Credit money is made of promises, so instead of persisting through history as gold does, it is created and redeemed as needed. All the cryptocurrencies, bar one, are issuing a fixed quantity of tokens and becoming vehicles for speculators and usurers and assets for hoarders. Credit currencies, by contrast, have no value in themselves and are as good as the reputation of the issuer. Disintermediating central banks is important, yes, but if we want actual economic justice we must allow everyone to issue credit in their own name.
Trusted or powerful central authorities have been issuing tokens for the people to exchange for as long as states and empires have existed. But too easily we forget the other half of money, which has been equally present throughout history: credit money. Credit money is made of promises, so instead of persisting through history as gold does, it is created and redeemed as needed. All the cryptocurrencies, bar one, are issuing a fixed quantity of tokens and becoming vehicles for speculators and usurers and assets for hoarders. Credit currencies, by contrast, have no value in themselves and are as good as the reputation of the issuer. Disintermediating central banks is important, yes, but if we want actual economic justice we must allow everyone to issue credit in their own name.
>> Max Haiven (CA)
Money as Artistic Medium: Mediating Capital, Three Strategies
Over the past two years I have been seeking to build an online collection of instances of art that mobilizes money as an artistic medium (moneyandart.tumblr.com) – from the integration of material money (coins, bills, credit cards) into various aesthetic processes (sculpture, painting, performance, etc.), to a preoccupation with more ephemeral thematics, including debt, global economics, and the dynamics of the art market itself. This presentation explores three (and a half) strategies that artists use to engage with money: crass opportunism; a stark revelation of money’s power; and a coy playing with art’s subjugation to money. It close with a more profound attempt to reveal the shared labour at the heart of both money and art’s aesthetic-political power. Money’s perennial appeal to artists, I argue, stems from the irony of its tantalizing capacity to ‘almost’ represent capitalist totality. At their core, both money and art are animated by a certain creative labour, the suspension of disbelief, and a politics of representation. As such, art becomes an important vantage point for studying, understanding, and seeing beyond the rule of money over social life. In spite of everything, there is something utopian about the power of the imagination that is, today, bound up in our use of money.
Money as Artistic Medium: Mediating Capital, Three Strategies
Over the past two years I have been seeking to build an online collection of instances of art that mobilizes money as an artistic medium (moneyandart.tumblr.com) – from the integration of material money (coins, bills, credit cards) into various aesthetic processes (sculpture, painting, performance, etc.), to a preoccupation with more ephemeral thematics, including debt, global economics, and the dynamics of the art market itself. This presentation explores three (and a half) strategies that artists use to engage with money: crass opportunism; a stark revelation of money’s power; and a coy playing with art’s subjugation to money. It close with a more profound attempt to reveal the shared labour at the heart of both money and art’s aesthetic-political power. Money’s perennial appeal to artists, I argue, stems from the irony of its tantalizing capacity to ‘almost’ represent capitalist totality. At their core, both money and art are animated by a certain creative labour, the suspension of disbelief, and a politics of representation. As such, art becomes an important vantage point for studying, understanding, and seeing beyond the rule of money over social life. In spite of everything, there is something utopian about the power of the imagination that is, today, bound up in our use of money.
>> Eli Gothill (UK)
#Punk Money
#PunkMoney is an experimental money system which allows users to ‘print money’ as Tweets, using a simple set of conventions. Nobody owns or operates #PunkMoney; it exists by consensus between its users. This talk will explain in detail how #PunkMoney works, what the motivations behind it are, and what has been learned since it began.
#Punk Money
#PunkMoney is an experimental money system which allows users to ‘print money’ as Tweets, using a simple set of conventions. Nobody owns or operates #PunkMoney; it exists by consensus between its users. This talk will explain in detail how #PunkMoney works, what the motivations behind it are, and what has been learned since it began.
>> Lana Swartz (US)
The Past, Present, and Future of Payment: From Diners’ Club to Bitcoin and Beyond
The everyday act of payment – transferring value from one person to another – is undergoing dramatic change. Increasingly, payment systems are situated within an array of social media – not financial – services. A variety of new actors are getting into the payment business. Many are hoping to harness the promise of transactional ‘big data’ and put it into conversation with other ‘social’ datasets. Others see in these datasets an opportunity to create new forms of value: niche ‘currencies’ based on reputation, relations and behaviour. Many are seeking to develop interoperability between these new forms, older systems like airline miles (which have been called ‘the world’s largest alternative currency’) and, indeed, good old-fashioned state-issued money. These technological and economic changes force a reconsideration not just of payment, but of money and value themselves. In order to imagine the future of payment we should also consider its history – metal department store Charga-Plates of the 1930s, the Diners’ Club, and the first charge card popularized in the 1950s-60s. Many new payment ‘rails’ are forging new channels of communication and value in the tracks of or alongside old ones.
The Past, Present, and Future of Payment: From Diners’ Club to Bitcoin and Beyond
The everyday act of payment – transferring value from one person to another – is undergoing dramatic change. Increasingly, payment systems are situated within an array of social media – not financial – services. A variety of new actors are getting into the payment business. Many are hoping to harness the promise of transactional ‘big data’ and put it into conversation with other ‘social’ datasets. Others see in these datasets an opportunity to create new forms of value: niche ‘currencies’ based on reputation, relations and behaviour. Many are seeking to develop interoperability between these new forms, older systems like airline miles (which have been called ‘the world’s largest alternative currency’) and, indeed, good old-fashioned state-issued money. These technological and economic changes force a reconsideration not just of payment, but of money and value themselves. In order to imagine the future of payment we should also consider its history – metal department store Charga-Plates of the 1930s, the Diners’ Club, and the first charge card popularized in the 1950s-60s. Many new payment ‘rails’ are forging new channels of communication and value in the tracks of or alongside old ones.
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