All the Small Things blog, November 7, 2011

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Stroom Den Haag and NAIM Bureau Europa, have launched a pop-up ‘time store’ called time/bank in Maastricht, Netherlands that is open now until October 2, 2011.opens the Dutch branch of the e-flux Time/Bank. This initiative by Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda is a perfect match with the Stroom program ‘Upcycling’ which investigates new perspectives in the creation of value and meaning.
The current distrust of existing financial and economic systems and the radical cuts in art funding are an important driving force behind this parallel micro economy based on trust and solidarity. This initiative by Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda is a perfect match with the Stroom program ‘Upcycling’ which investigates new perspectives in the creation of value and meaning.
“Through Time/Bank, we hope to create an immaterial currency and a parallel micro-economy for the cultural community, one that is not geographically bound, and that will create a sense of worth for many of the exchanges that already take place within our field—particularly those that do not produce commodities and often escape the structures that validate only certain forms of exchange as significant or profitable.”

Conclusion

We all know that physical money would be worthless if we ceased to put any meaning into it, yet things like useful products and labor have always been worth something, that is why the Time/Bank pop-up shop is so culturally crucial. By trading in time, the Time/Bank pop-up shop does deal in principles of mutualism and the labor theory of value, but only through the concept of time. It forces us to reconsider what is really important in this life. People often get sidetrack by the ritual of making and spending money, but what if we just focused on the work and results that really matter?

 

Posted by at 15:24