Follow the Money
Of Analogue Values, Digital Currencies and the Quantification of the World

A classic format of performative knowledge appropriation: 90 experts pick up the scent of money at scales small, big, and personal, showing how cryptocurrencies challenge banks and states, and close the gaps of the salable. The “Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge” is a place for exchanging knowledge, an archive and a reading room, a stock exchange and a counselling service all at the same time.

Book a 1:1 conversation for €1 or listen to the talks via the 8 channels of the Market Radio!

Money generates, transforms, destroys ties between people and people, people and things, things and things. This has (almost) always been the case. Acceleration is increasing, the market ticks in real time and trades with the future: nowhere is the digitalisation of the world more striking than in the economic sphere. Cryptocurrencies are replacing bank accounts; alternative payment systems are challenging the power of states, which in turn are trying to counter the competition from global technology and platform corporations.

The total virtualisation of reality promises its equally total commodification. Everything – real and virtual objects, memories, feelings, care – becomes a potential carrier of value, a possible object of speculation, a token.

Money is a relational tool. It creates relationships: of debt and guilt, of dependencies, of prosperity and poverty. It irrationally rationalises the world. It is used to compare the value of things, activities, relationships, but also of people. Money is the face of capital, fetish, metaphor and machine, threatening and desirable.

In an arena running on the rhythm of administrative time, 90 experts from the fields of art, activism, theory and myriad of everyday careers will present their expertise: What actually is this strange medium of money that has been argued about for at least two and a half millennia? The Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge traces the developments of money, looks at what it makes possible and what it does by adopting the refrain of investigative journalists and marriage swindlers: Follow the money!

Cast & Credits
Lizenzgeberin: Hannah Hurtzig
Kurator: Florian Malzacher
Dramaturg: Philipp Scholtysik
Projektleiterin: Ulrike Voidel

Ein Projekt der Mobilen Akademie Berlin, produziert vom Künstler:innenhaus Mousonturm in Kooperation mit ZEVEDI, dem Zentrum verantwortungsbewusste Digitalisierung. Ein Projekt im Rahmen des Bündnisses internationaler Produktionshäuser, gefördert von der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien. ZEVEDI wird gefördert von der Hessischen Ministerin für Digitale Strategie und Entwicklung.

Detailed information on the following experts in the encyclopedia (PDF download)

Book a 1:1 conversation with the experts:
Ben Ackermann, visual artist
Thomas Adam, city guide & ex-homeless person
Antigone Akgün, theater director
Ben Ackermann, visual artist
André Alfes, legal expert / Bundesbank
Katrin Assenmacher, head of the Monetary Policy Strategy Division / ECB
Timothy Attanucci, literary scholar
Andrea Baldan, romance philologist
Noria Bellouch, cooperative co-founder
Frank Berger, curator for monetary history / Historisches Museum Frankfurt
Bastian Bergerhoff, city treasurer / Frankfurt am Main
Barbara Brandl, economic sociologist / Institute for Social Research (IfS)
Karlheinz Braun, editor & founder / Verlag der Autoren
Till Breyer, Germanist
Golde Carlsson, sex worker
Il-Jin Atem Choi, visual artist
Tsafrir Cohen, human rights activist & executive director / medico international
Caroline Creutzburg, performance artist
Radha D’Souza, legal scholar & activist
Minh Dao, solutions architect / Chainalysis
Clémentine Deliss, curator & cultural scientist
Jutta Ditfurth, political activist & author
Carlos Franke, interaction artist
Nicole Fischer, hairdresser
Petra Gehring, philosopher / Zentrum verantwortungsbewusste Digitalisierung
Claus George, computer scientist & banker / DZ Bank
Jan Greitens, historian of monetary theories
Achim Greser, cartoonist / Greser&Lenz
Jürgen Geuter, technologist
Lisa Yashodhara Haller, political scientist / Institute for Social Research (IfS)
Pit Hartling, vice world champion of magic
Michael Hartmann, researcher of elites
Ina Hartwig, Head of Cultural Affairs / Frankfurt am Main
Rolf Haubl, psychoanalytic social psychologist & former director / Sigmund Freud Institute
Bernadette La Hengst, unconditional choir director
Mikael GB Horstmann, etiquette expert
Hannah Hurtzig, artistic director / Mobile Academy Berlin
Moritz Hütten, financial sociologist
Bijan Kaffenberger, economist, politician & author
Alexander Karschnia, theatermaker / andcompany&Co.
Radwa Khaled-Ibrahim, consultant for critical aid & emergency aid / medico international
Alexandra Keiner, economic sociologist / Weizenbaum Institute
Fleur Kemmers, archaeologist & numismatist
Tobias Klein, bank founder / First Private
Patrick Kokoszynski, activist / ADA-Kantine
Christian Kremser, economic philosopher & Trekkie
Bojana Kunst, philosopher & performance theorist
Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, curator / Museum Angewandte Kunst
Agnieszka Kurant, artist
Laura Laabs, in-game scientist
Nikolas Lelle, social philosopher & consultant on anti-Semitism / Amadeo Antonio Stiftung
Marlon Lieber, Americanist
Lina Lindheimer, Riedel trade representative
Aminata Lorenz, K-Pop fan
Julia Mantel, poet
Katja Maurer, author
Fabrice Mazliah, choreographer
Nana Melling, artist & consultant for political education
Daniel Mertens, political economist / University of Osnabrück
Guadalupe Moreno, sociologist & political economist
Gerald Nestler, artist and author
Aleksandra Peeva, economist & consultant to the World Bank / LSE
Michael Quast, actor / Volksbühne im Großen Hirschgraben
Jana Ringwald, cybercrime prosecutor
Jochen Schmith, artists’ collective
Martin Schmitt, historian of technology
Inken Schönauer, head of finance department / F.A.Z.
Dag Schulze, experimental economist
Brett Scott, cash activist & ex-broker
Shantel aka Stefan Hantel, musician
Roland Siegwald, artist
Sebastian Siepen, market infrastructure expert, Market Innovation and Integration Division / ECB
Robin Sommer, music activist & member of a collective economy
Marcus Steinweg, philosopher
Igor Štromajer, internet artist
Nathan Taylor, literary scholar
Joana Tischkau, choreographer & flea market coach
Julia Uherek, division manager, consumer goods fairs / Messe Frankfurt
Robert Virga, Ethereum stakeholder
Jeanne Charlotte Vogt, media art curator & inofficial tax consultant
Klaus Walter, pop critic
Carola Westermeier, social scientist
Janosch Witte, money laundering officer / ProCredit banking group
Sabine Wochele, teacher & pocket money expert / Freie Schule Frankfurt
Sonja Yakovleva, visual artist
tbc.

Watch the Trailer here