Below is the current state of my proposal — which will likely be modified as I fine tune the project.<\/p>\n
A couple weeks ago I fell asleep in front of the news. Right before I drifted off the French Minister of Finance was saying, with a hint of panic in her voice, \u201cWe have to find a way to fix the system because there is no alternative.\u201d Money is symbolic system. I\u2019m interested in imagining an alternative symbolic system to what we have now. I wonder if even the most fantastical alternative could be more absurd than what we already have in place.
\nWall Street, for example, is in the business of buying and selling sophisticated \u201cfinancial products\u201d which are abstractions and concepts that no longer represent or stand in for anything tangible or real. It seems that the current global financial crisis has been caused in part by the signifier becoming completely unhinged from the signified.
\nFor my proposed project I\u2019d like to invent a system where money is more intimately linked to the thing it represents and explore the ethics of such a system. In the context of a feminist discussion I may also ask if there is a gender component to the dangerous abstractions of Wall Street or in any more material and reality-based alternative.
\nMy project will be inspired by an image I\u2019ve been thinking about: a bin of worms hard at work making compost from a bedding of shredded dollar bills. I\u2019m curious about what meanings would arise from the transformation of paper money into dirt — an ecologically valuable dirt (worm castings) that will help a vegetable and flower garden grow. What if bank vaults stored compost rather than gold, or were even homes to vibrant, hydroponic greenhouses? What if banks maintained ecosystems of flowers, vegetables, clean, running water, butterflies and insects? And what if one of the functions of money was to literally nurture these things, by being turned into vermicompost on set dates that are stamped on the bills? I would like to work these ideas into an installation.
\nI think participating in group discussions about this very timely topic of money would be helpful to any serious development of this project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Below is the current state of my proposal — which will likely be modified as I fine tune the project. A couple weeks ago I fell asleep in front of the news. Right before I drifted off the French Minister … Continue reading