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- stone money
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- celullar automata
In our society, we trade our time and energy for units of value called money.
The first forms of money were carved stone and metal weights used in the Mesopotamian valley. Although theirs forms were diverse, each unit of measurement and had a direct correlation to caloric energy (in the form of stored grain). Nowadays, there is no standard connecting money’s value with reality.
Although the ins and outs of international finance are often as complex as some languages, on a daily level, the pattern of money’s flow in and out of an individual bank account is clear.But yet the concrete nature of the work that money represents is often forgotten, and indeed many people (myself included) find money management confusing- if not slightly terrifying.
If we could see clearly where our money was going and what it was doing, would our patterns of behavior and consumption change?
My project for Gaia will be an experiment in money management for visual thinkers.
Bringing money back to its ancient roots, I will create sets of small tokens to represent the money in my bank account. Graduated in scale, each token will signify a specific amount of time/energy. These tokens will be arranged in patterns (similar to those found in cellular autonoma or go games) on a board to represent how and where I spend, save and earn money. In this way the stress of money management will be turned into a literal board game, with saving money and reducing debt as its goal.
As the residency progresses the growth and changes of these patterns will be documented with photographs and drawings. Translating the abstract numbers into an abstract visual pattern will help me gain a more objective viewpoint on my finances, and new relationships and should be visible in the information. Once the system is perfected, it will be possible to experiment with using it therapeutically with the public during the opening (if they bring their bank statements!).
