Beyond Price & Profit:
Art, Finance & the Question of Value
DESCRIPTION
How can the art sphere function as an experimental ground for producing and circulating financial logics that deviate from those of financial capitalism? This seminar explores different theories of financialisation and how these may be applied in understanding the relationship between contemporary art and finance. Particular attention will be given to socio-cultural analyses of finance and the possibilities that these may open up for art as a platform for speculative modulation. Apart from textual references, the seminar will be based around a series of case-studies from the art field, both historical and current, while each session will involve a guest-speaker whose practice or current project is targeting different aspects of art’s potential as a vehicle for socially valuable financial paradigms.
22 March 2017 — Session 1
Deloitte and ArtTactic (2016) Art and Finance Report.
Ivanova, V (2016) Contemporary art and financialisation: two approaches. In: Finance and Society, 2(2): 127-37.
Knorr Cetina, K. and Preda, A. (2012) Introduction. In: Knorr Cetina, K. and Preda, A. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Finance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-12.
29 March 2017 — Session 2
with special guests, João Enxuto and Erica Love
Gupta, V. (2015) Programmable blockchains in context: Ethereum’s future.
Projansky, B. and Siegelaub, S. (1971) The artist’s reserved rights transfer and sale agreement.
12 April 2017 — Session 3
with special guest, Alexandra Pirici
Appadurai, A. (1988) Introduction: commodities and the politics of value. In: Appadurai, A. (ed.) The Social Life of Things. Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Martin, R. (2012) A precarious dance, a derivative sociality. In: The Drama Review, 56(4): 64-79.
26 April 2017 — Session 4
with special guest, Emily Rosamond
Dowling, E., Harvie, D. (2014) Harnessing the social: state, crisis and (big) society. In: Sociology, 48(5): 869-886.
Rosamond, E. (2016) Shared stakes, distributed investment: socially engaged art and the financialisation of social impact. In: Finance and Society, 2(2): 111-126.
Image: Damien Hirst, For the Love of God, 2007