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A little better
A little better
2017-2018
Two-channel HD video installation. 4’47’’.
For several months, I followed different
cryptocurrency trading and development
instant messaging platforms,
actively participating in their discussions and generating
debates on topics such as trust, value, risk, the meaning of money, the role of central banks, national sovereignty,
etc.
I particularly followed and gathered the visual language
created for said discussions, permeated with exuberance, irrationality,
speculation, and greed, but also with true hopes of a somehow unattainable financial future,
resistant to the oversight of any sovereign state.
The obvious
departure point for this project would be the launch of the Bitcoin network
in 2009, which had as its background the Financial
Global Crisis of 2007–8. But I decided to back track my research to 1971, when Richard Nixon announced the end of the gold standard, thus terminating the post-war Bretton Woods system.
Weeks before Nixon terminated the gold standard, he
was secretly recorded talking about the economy:
“We are just running the chaos a little better”. Almost
half a century later, delusional thinking and hope may
fuel the rise of cryptocurrencies. It makes sense to ask if
it's sustainable, even rational. Perhaps not, but one could
argue that, as today, neither is the world economy.
This work was exhibited at AirSpace Projects, Sydney, Australia (2018); 9th Cairo Video Festival, Cairo, Egypt (2019); ISEA 2020, Montreal, Canada (2020). Download
publication and paper.
Installation views, Airspace Projects, Sydney. 2018.