All Images from MoneyLab: Art, Culture & Financial Activism can be viewed at our Flickr
MoneyLab showcases critical research and artistic intervention that explore the connections between contemporary art, financial activism and digital culture. Previously held in Amsterdam and organised by the Institute of Network Cultures, this fourth edition of MoneyLab is a collaboration between Anglia Ruskin University, the Institute of Network Cultures, and Somerset House Studios, and brings together researchers, artists, designers, and cultural entrepreneurs thinking beyond money.Panels, talks and workshops that explore the borderlands between critical art-making, decentralised financial technologies, collective organisation, and civil disobedience.
Playing to Lose: Gameplay in Art and Finance
Artists are increasingly adopting game design as a methodology to interrogate and subvert complex financial and political systems. From simulations of fictional companies to live action role-play games, a diverse range of situated methods is emerging to expose social and political infrastructures. This discussion will explore to what effects gamification and digital simulation are useful for organising socio-political activism. Is responsible, community-oriented life in contemporary society a ‘skill’ that can be learned in a game-like environment? If the performance of financial investments can be simulated, can we also simulate the disruption of capitalist systems? How can such simulation become reality?
Moderated by journalist and campaigner Brett Scott with games designer Andy Morales Coto, developer Kei Kreutler, researcher Stephanie Polsky and The Demystification Committee.
Earth’s Cooperative for Economic Fairness with FairCoop
FairCoop will present the world’s first democratically organised and eco-friendly crypto-currency, FairCoin. The latest FairCoin uses a co-operative model for distributing crypto-currencies and aims to create a digital currency for a new global economic system. Workshop participants will learn about the development of FairCoin, from the technical elements to the political and social motivations of creating an energy saving and cooperative blockchain. Find out how to setup a FairCoop in your region and how you could join a decentralized network to reduce economic inequality and create a global wealth of abundance for the commons.
With Juan Cruz Avila, Enric Duran, Paula Góes & Jorge Saiz
Art and Equity? Tokenizing Culture with the Blockchain
Artists are playing a central role in shaping our understanding of emerging blockchain technologies, and continue to propose exciting visions for how decentralized computation could challenge current social and political power structures. Already, there are a few experimental blockchain projects that question our core assumptions about ownership, authorship, reproducibility, and authenticity. This panel introduces artistic perspectives on distributed ledger technologies, and brings them into critical dialogue with the emerging blockchain economies. From platform distribution models and new types of digital art markets to hyper-real click-mine farms and self-owning artworks, what can we learn about emerging blockchain technologies from critical artistic practice?
Moderated by artist and curator Ruth Catlow, with artist Marija Bozinovska Jones, art advisor Jérôme Croisier, researcher and curator Rachel O’ Dwyer and artist/software engineer Sarah Friend.
Book Launch: MoneyLab Reader Vol. 2, published by The Institute of Network Cultures
Concluding the day, this session, introduced by Inte Gloerich, launches the latest publication from the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam. The book features a collection of essays from artists, academics and activists who critically explore art, finance and technology. This second volume expands on a global network committed to exploring the political and social territories created since the financial crash was inscribed onto the first Bitcoin block in 2009. Essays range from the financialisation of art, love as a binary proposition on the blockchain, the cashless society, the history of your financial dashboard, and the digital financial surveillance of the poor. Join us to celebrate the launch of the book and enjoy a handful of readings from some of the book’s contributors from artist/writer/educator Emily Rosamond, and researcher Nathaniel Tkacz.