I was having a lovely meal with my friend Dara the other day, when we began chatting about money, and its strange role in our lives and in the art world. Dara mentioned the curious case of JSG Boggs, an American artist who draws single-sided banknotes and “spends” them for their face value all around the world.
He doesn’t sell his drawings. That’s rule number one. Instead he “spends” them. That’s rule number two. So far, he’s spent about $250,000 worth of Boggs’ bills. [...] Once Boggs has completed a transaction, he keeps mum about it for twenty-four hours, so the person who got the drawing has “time, unbothered, to think about what’s just transpired.” That’s rule number three. After that–rule number four–Boggs will sell the receipt and change from the transaction to a collector. Via the receipt, the collector can track down the owner of the Boggs bill and negotiate a deal “so as to complete the work.” [...] A bill that Boggs uses to make a five dollar purchase can be resold for, perhaps, a hundred times that much–a figure that fluctuates over time. And, once a collector completes the artwork, the value of the whole exceeds the sum of the cost of the parts. So, where did that value come from? Boggs’ labor? The efforts of the collector? The vicissitudes of the art market?
While Boggs’ work brings up interesting questions about the art market, what I found even more compelling were the questions that his work brings up about the very nature of money itself. Paper money is, in fact, strangely similar to traditional fine art that is hand-drawn by an artist: it is meant to be inimitable, genuine, and valuable. Boggs’ notes fulfill these criteria, but subvert the global economic system that paper money is but one signifier of.
Which led my thoughts to the subject of alternative currencies. I had the experience of attending the World Summit on Free Information Infrastructures at Limehouse Town Hall in London, in 2005. They were using an alternative currency called “the Lime” at this event, which I was initially skeptical about, but by the end of my visit was completely enchanted by the possibilities it afforded.
The Lime is a currency created for the Limehouse area. A “Special Edition” of the currency has been created for the duration of WSFII for use by delegates. [...] The Lime works like cash. We have a very simple exchange rate: 1. One (1) lime = 1 (one) Pound (1L = £1). When you buy items at local stores, you can pay in a mixture of Limes and Pounds, and will get change in pounds (or Limes). All Lime notes are printed onto green paper, and must be activated with a Red stamp. Make sure that all your Lime notes have a red “Valid” stamped onto their front. [...] The Special Edition Lime is not actually a community currency, it is backed by real cash. Our objective with this project is to initiate the currency, to get people to start to see it as a way to trade.
Initially I traded my Sterling for Limes and thought, “I hope I don’t get stuck with any of this funny money as leftovers.” Then I went to a local pizzeria and paid in Limes. As I was settling up, I noticed the huge piles of Limes behind the register. At that moment I realised that the economic impact of this influx of travellers coming to the WSFII conference was being made material to local businesses, where previously it had been nearly invisible. The Limes had made their impact – not just on delegates, but on the perception of locals.
Two organisers, Greenman and Mary Fee, explained how the Lime was used in local businesses in this way:
We described the Lime to local businesses as “Food Tokens”. Delegates to our conference would be given tokens which they would use to exchange for food. We gave each business about £50 as a deposit and asked them to accept 50 Limes worth of business. When the £50 was used up, we would pay them a visit and hand over more money. We mentioned that, if they were happy to accept more Limes than they had deposit for, we would reimburse them for those too. Stores were given an information sheet on how the “food tokens” worked, as well as a small “Limes Accepted Here”sign to post in their window.
Thoughts of limes and pizzas led me to another project that interrogates the notion of money and value, and brings the questioning of the art market full circle.
“Wants for sale” is a project by two NYC-based artist/designers, Christine Santora and Justin Gignac. They have created paintings that depict items that they desire – and are selling the paintings for the exact cost of the item. The painting of sleep costs nothing, the painting of the iPhone goes for the actual iPhone cost of $649.17, the painting of a steak goes for $18.49, and “financial security” (a painting of a stack of greenbacks, pictured above) goes for 1 million dollars. I wonder if the artists would take payment in Boggs notes, or Limes?
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Two alternative currencies in Africa: Prostitutes accepting fuel in Zimbabwe; and farmers accepting mobile phone credit in Kenya.
In the first case, the new ‘currency’ is valuable because it is scarce and is perceived to retain value where the actual legal tender does not. In the second case, the new ‘currency’ is roughly pegged to legal tender (although this is not guaranteed), but it has value in its own right as a tool for better information about the local economy… and is very easy to move without charge over long distances.
The excellent Fuerzabruta show at this year’s Edinburgh festival has a bar that only takes tokens, purchased from a booth. I think they make money from this state of affairs, since 2 tokens for a beer seems cheaper than £3 for a beer… despite the fact that each token costs £1.50! Since the show takes place in a vulnerable circus tent, it makes sense for them to issue their own currency that has no value elsewhere.
I’m reading the long and delightful Baroque Cycle trilogy by Neal Stephenson at the moment. It charts the way in which science and mathematics helped in the development of civilisation. One heroine manipulates the markets of Amsterdam, and finally the foreign policy of all of France, using the Mathematics she has learnt from Leibniz. Issac Newton is installed as director of the Royal Mint, to restore some public faith in the new coins issues by the English government.
I think what is interesting about currencies is the way in which their percieved value can rise or fall, depending on what is backing them up. The Euro, Yen, Pound and Dollar all rise or fall depending on the strength and prospects of their respective economies, and the artworks above gain value based on the expectations of the buyer, the popularity of the artist, etcetera, which provide reasons and incentives for the storekeepers to participate in the new currency.
I’m not sure whether I find the Limehouse experiment particularly interesting, precisely because I’m not sure what value or reason the Limes have for being there. Since it is pegged to the pound, there’s no fluctuation in value and no market incentive to trade in Limes rather than pounds. If the value of Limes had the potential to rise based on some lottery, then that would add an extra dimension to the proceedings.
However, I think your point about how they visibly prove the economic benefits of the conference to the locals is interesting. It would be interesting to see how this works on a larger scale.
Currency tagging?
a) sign, stamp or otherwise mark a £5 note, and see where it goes.
b) Surely individual pounds could be electronically tagged as they are paid out by the government? So long as they stay in their ‘electronic’ form in various bank accounts, one could get some very useful data about the flow of money through the economy.
c = a + b) We have print-on-demand books: Why not print-on-demand money, each with its own bar code?
(All a bit Orwellian I suppose, but a good quirk for a sci-fi story, I reckon).A long comment, I know, but I’m on a train.
x R
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Interesting comments, Rob.
Systems like these (the Lime, the beer tokens at Fuerzabruta) permit more information to be collected and analysed about how “money” is spent. Tokens and alternative paper currencies are clear ways to measure simple parameters such as how much beer was consumed, or how much money was spent at local businesses during a given amount of time. With things like near-field communication being developed, will we see perhaps not alternate currencies, but alternate methods of payment generating masses of data – data that has its own (substantial) value?
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When Salvador Dali would go out to eat, and bring students and friends or etc, he would foot the bill by writing a cheque. He would then make a little drawing or sketch on the back of the cheque, knowing they would never cash it.
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I love that Dali story.
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