Seminar in Visual Culture
Money Money Money
Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, Room ST 275
(School of Advanced Study, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, WC1B 5DN
London)

Thursday 29 Jan, 6.30 – 8.00pm
Dr. Yair Wallach, “Money becomes Text: Gold and Paper in Palestine”
In what ways is money written or read? Does the shape of money matters to
its use? I will address these questions looking at money in everyday life
and high politics in late Ottoman and British ruled Palestine (1858-1948).
The dramatic shift from gold coins to paper banknotes in Palestine provides
an intriguing example of the abstraction of money and its
de-materialisation, its becoming a text of sort. The paper will discuss
these developments against Palestine's textual and political economies, as
well as the monetary theories of Marx, Keynes and Simmel.
Rebecca Ross (Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design), “Doing
Visual Culture: Currency and Graphic Design”
I will discuss work produced with second year BA Graphic Design students at
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design for a recent studio project
centred around the theme of currency. While the student work itself
approaches money from multiple perspectives and with a variety of interests
and concerns, the main objective of this talk will be to present this
studio project as one model for integrating visual design practice with
intellectual agency.

RSVP ricarda.vidalsas.ac.uk so we know roughly how many people to expect.
The Seminar in Visual Culture aims to create a forum for practicing
artists, researchers, curators, students, and others interested in visual
culture to present, discuss and explore the various aspects of a given
theme within the field. In 2009, to keep apace with the present
credit-crunching times, the theme is Money.
While the media are providing us with endless analyses of the credit crisis
from all imaginable economic angles, it is now perhaps time to look at how
artists and writers are responding to Nasdaq and FTSE100, to shiny coins
and colourful banknotes and to the repetitive images of worried brokers
shouting into their mobile phones. After all, money is itself an object of
design and has long been the subject of the creative arts and the credit
crunch has not only inspired economists and journalists.
The seminar looks at the relationship between art, money and the everyday –
in times of crisis and of affluence. Sessions include theoretical papers,
art presentations of new and existing work as well as film screenings.
For more information please contact ricarda.vidalsas.ac.uk

Programme:
Thursday 29 Jan, 6.30 – 8.00pm
Dr. Yair Wallach, “Money becomes Text: Gold and Paper in Palestine”
Rebecca Ross (Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design), “Doing
Visual Culture: Currency and Graphic Design”

Thursday 26 Feb, 6.30 – 8.00pm
Samuel Thomson, “Artist Futures” (film presentation)
Jon Purnell, Cack-U-Like (art presentation)

Wednesday 25 Mar, 6.30 – 8.00pm
Marina Vishmidt, “Speculation as Mode of Production: Art, Money and the
Formalism of Value”
Carolyn Kay, “Economics and Gaming” (art presentation)
Tessa Garland, Consumerism and Art (art presentation)

Thursday 28 May, 6.30 – 8.00pm
Dr. Diane Gabrysiak (Birkbeck College), “Let’s Make Money – Representing
money on film”
Morgan Adamson (University of Minnesota), "Inflation and the Image: Film,
Financial Crisis, and the End of the Gold Standard"

Wednesday 24 June, 6.30 – 8.00pm
Dr. Gavin Grindon (Kingston University), “Art-Activism, Anticapitalism and
Value – from the Situationist International to now”
Robin Priestley, The Space Hijackers (art presentation)

Dr Ricarda Vidal

49 Dalmeny Road
London N7 0DY
United Kingdom

phone: 0044 (0)20 7263 0369
mobile: 0044 079 4045 8535