We imagine that art and money are old enemies, but this myth actually reproduces a violent system of global capitalism and prevents us from imagining and building alternatives.
From the chaos unleashed by the 'imaginary' money in financial markets to the new forms of exploitation enabled by the 'creative economy' to the way art has become the plaything of the world's plutocrats, our era of financialization demands we question our romantic assumptions about art and money. By exploring the way contemporary artists engage with cash, debt and credit, Haiven identifies and assesses a range of creative strategies for mocking, sabotaging, exiting, decrypting and hacking capitalism today.
Written for artists, activists and scholars, this book makes an urgent call to unleash the power of the radical imagination by any media necessary.
About the Author
Max Haiven is Research Chair in Culture, Media and Social Justice at Lakehead University, Canada. His books include Art after Money, Money after Art (Pluto, 2018), Crises of Imagination, Crises of Power (Zed Books, 2004), Cultures of Financialization (Palgrave MacMillan, 2014) and the Radical Imagination (Zed Boooks, 2014).
What People Are Saying
"Perhaps the most theoretically creative radical thinker of the moment" David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5000 Years (Melville House, 2014)
"Daring, brilliant, provocative. At last a radical critique of the crypto-approach and an abolitionist approach to the problem of money and art" Franco Berardi, Philosopher, author of Futurability: The Age of Impotence and the Horizon of Possibility (Verso, 2017)
Table of Contents
Figures
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. 3.5 Artistic Strategies To Envision Money’s Mediation
2. 6 Artists x 2 Crises x 3 Orders Of Reproduction
3. 0 Participation: Benign Pessimism, Tactical Parasitics and the Encrypted Common
4. Encryption: Art’s Crypt, Securitization in Numbers, Derivative Socialities
5. Conclusion: Toward Abolitionist Horizons
Notes
Subject Index
Name Index