Capitalism is unsustainable.
As we witness ecological collapse threatening the ability to support human life across the globe, matched by inequality the world has never witnessed (WEF 2014), science warns of the ongoing, irrevocable and permanent damage perpetrated by this economic system, calling for, ‘urgent, immediate and large-scale’ action (IPCC 2021, 2022). Due to its central role in the construction of this globalised system, THE MARKET (2010-) critically addresses the functioning and condition of the global markets and the pivotal role of financial capital. It is the continuation of a cycle of long-term activist research projects, beginning in the late 1990s focused on the predatory context resulting from flows and migrations of capital.
Having undertaken an extensive process of negotiation, averaging 1-2 years, to access strategic global sites and/or individuals in London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Addis Ababa, the multi-media visual anthropology research project incorporates photographs, film, algorithmically-generated soundscape1, artifactual material including trader chatrooms, 3D data visualisation and transcripts of verbal testimony from bankers, traders, brokers, financial analysts in its full installation.
In the context of the technological evolution of algorithmic infrastructures, pioneered by financial capital, the project documents structures, whether visible/invisible, material/immaterial, taking the sphere out of abstraction and positioning it as a pervasive force central to our lives. Themes include the algorithmic machinery of financial markets, central innovator of this technology, the construction and absorption of crises as the normalisation of deviance, and the long range mapping and consequences of financial activity distanced from citizens and everyday life.
Defining the cultural system of capital as one which normalises deviance, in the construction and maintenance of our globalised and financialised present, THE MARKET (2010-) advocates that such cultural description is an urgent prerequisite in understanding the continued functioning of this system and informing the establishment of a beyond/post-capital inclusive, sustainable and just future.
In its totality, THE MARKET (2010-) evidences how the continuing hegemony of global finance aligned with technological innovation and the extinction of human reason – including empathy and ethics – will only perpetuate the unsustainable power relations of minority wealth in our globalised capitalist system.
Project collaborator is, Helen Carey, Curator and Director of Firestation Artist Studios (Dublin) and supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, NEPN (University of Sunderland, UK), Noorderlicht (Netherlands), Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT) Dublin, Photo Museum Ireland, Belfast Exposed, Centre Culturel Irlandais (Paris) & Culture Ireland.
Algorithm Design & Sound Composition Ken Curran