Tuesday 16th March 2010 08:13:42 PM

mediaspace_09 > an online curator discussion

 Mediaspace




For the first time Wand 5 e.V. was announcing an open competition to select the media-space 09 curatorteam. There were no limitations on the means of implementation. The purpose of this open competition was to establish a new experimental space - an >open space< in which artists can perform. (>> more)

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Next Phase: Asymptote 3.0

Building Momentum

Damien Hirst: Beautiful Inside My Bank Account Forever...

Damien Hirst X Levis Fall 2008 Spin Denim Auction

Rolexes fly off the shelves as Icelanders seek safe investments

Sign of the Times: National Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

Burak Arikan - Back to Materiality

Barrick Gold

Algorithmic trading

This Federal Bailout Proposal is a Disaster

Rolexes fly off the shelves as Icelanders seek safe investments

Sign of the Times: National Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

Show Me The Money: The Map of the Market

Back to Materiality.

smart money / map of market

Global Downturn ‘Is an Earthquake, not a Tremor’

The recently mentioned Spiegel series brings now an interview with former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, who talks about the global financial crisis and his hope that Barack Obama will be the right president to lead the US out of recession.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Wolfensohn, you are known to be an advocate of socially responsible capitalism. How do you view the Wall Street community these days?

Wolfensohn: Well, I think the Wall Street community is preoccupied by survival. We’re having a downturn of unprecedented proportions, and so it’s not surprising that issues of global social responsibility are pushed to the back. That doesn’t mean that it is correct and it doesn’t mean that we are still not better off in this country than in many other countries.
(continue reading)

Call: Securitisation, Risk and Governance: Understanding Uncertainty in the Age of Finance

First Workshop

Securitisation, Risk and Governance: Understanding Uncertainty in the Age of Finance

City University London, 6-7 May 2009

Confirmed participants: Anastasia Nesvetailova (City), Michael Dillon (Lancaster), Peter Burgess (PRIO), Urs Stäheli (Basel), Marieke de Goede (Amsterdam), Oliver Kessler (Bielefeld), Luis Lobo-Guerrero (Keele), Leonard Seabrooke (Copenhagen), Johnna Montgomerie (Manchester), Samuel Knafo (Sussex) TBC: Michael Pettis (Peking), Paul Langley (Northumbria), Rob Aitken (Alberta), Karel Williams (Manchester)

The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 - the first crisis of the securitisation era - has shown a new face of contemporary finance. While financial securitisation has been heralded by orthodox economists as a celebrated model of risk optimisation, the spectacular turn from risk absorber to risk amplifier in the global crisis raises significant questions about financial innovation, practices of risk-trading and existing modes of regulation and governance.

The mere scope and impact of the global financial crisis exemplifies the need for a new interdisciplinary understanding of securitisation. This workshop aims to stimulate a fruitful dialogue to explore the relationship of finance and security. It is the first of three, to be held at City University London, the University of Amsterdam and the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) during 2009-2010. Contributions are welcome from the fields of (Critical) Security Studies/ International Relations, International Political Economy, International Law, Financial Economics, Accounting, Human Geography, Social Studies of Finance/ Economic Sociology and Literature.

Some of the questions the workshop seeks to address include: How do existing theories of securitisation conceptualise risk and uncertainty? What is ‘security’ in the context of the financial system? How do financial and other conceptualisations of security interact? What is the role of securitisation as provider of (in)security? What effect does securitisation have on financial risk-taking?

We invite submissions that address the above questions, and the following sub-themes:

- Financial security, risk and uncertainty
- The role of credit derivatives and leverage
- Systemic security and liquidity
- Financial calculation and security
- Performative/ governmental analyses of financial security
- Trust, reflexivity and governance

Abstracts of 200-300 words should be sent to Nina Boy (nina@prio.no) by 22 February 2009. We will select contributions by 8 March 2009. Paper drafts should be submitted by 12 April 2009. Work in progress is welcome.

The maelstrom

German magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ started an ongoing series on the global downturn which summarizes some of the facts especially in figures. As well it does not any longer put too much surprise on the global interconnectedness of affairs - so it might be worth to be follow up:

THE INTERNATIONAL DOWNTURN
In the Globalized Crisis, Everyone Shares the Pain

The upheaval in the financial markets has sent shock waves around the globe. Economies in North America, Europe and Asia are closely connected — for better or for worse. But now the threat of a new protectionism is taking shape.

Editor’s Note: This feature is part of a SPIEGEL series that will continue all week on how the economic downturn is affecting people and companies around the world. No other downturn in history has pulled as many of the world’s economies. The current crisis is hitting migrant laborers in China, automobile workers in Detroit, Russians oligarchs and even strong traditional German firms like the chemical giant BASF.

in Debt We Trust

So finally some full length film link to watch according to these day’s main theme:
In Debt We Trust discusses the massive debt burden that millions of Americans are struggling with and a presents a forecast of the fiscal crisis that faces our country when the ballooning national debt comes due. Inspired by Robert Manning’s book Credit Card Nation, the film showcases Manning’s insights about the impact of debt on young people and our society. […] In Debt We Trust explains how the mall replaced the factory as America’s dominant economic engine and how big banks and credit card companies are lobbying congress and driving individuals into ever greater debt (excerpt via American Sociological Association) ….

IN DEBT WE TRUST is the latest film from Danny Schechter, “The News Dissector,” director of the internationally distributed and award-winning WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception), an expose of the media’s role in the Iraq War. The Emmy-winning former ABC News and CNN producer’s new hard-hitting documentary investigates why so many Americans are being strangled by debt. It is a journalistic confrontation with what former Reagan advisor Kevin Phillips calls “Financialization”–the “powerful emergence of a debt-and-credit industrial complex.” >>> read on

film website / watch the entire film on video.google here.

Democracy now takes a look onto the subject and film here .. and a german review here.

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The Ascent of Money:
A Financial History of the World

“The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World,” is the recent book by Niall Ferguson, which as the NYTimes writes in its review anticipates many aspects of the current financial crisis, which has toppled banks, precipitated gigantic government bailouts and upended global markets.

The book just recently has also been turned into a series for UK’s channel 4 and despite what one might criticize, the episode I have seen so far, has given me real interesting insights. Channel 4 still airs the episodes at the moment and also provides a whole page on the subject … but if you want to enjoy the information itself and dont’t want to read the book … also the elder episodes are findable online ..

.. and here is an extensive interview from youtube with the author:

.. just some numbers …

Barry Ritholtz: “In doing the research for the “Bailout Nation” book, I needed a way to put the dollar amounts into proper historical perspective. If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars.
 
People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.
 
Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:
 
• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion”

via boingboing

D.I.Y. - The artist as model of the crisis

My favorite example of our topic the role of artist Damien Hirst in regards of the crisis got a new contribution by a today’s SZ (Süddeutsche Zeitung) article. While the ‘hardcover copy’ of the newspaper titles ‘Mach’s doch selbst’ Daminen Hirst: Der Künstler als Leitbild der Krise the internet version reads as following:

Kunst und Krise / Mal gewinnt man, mal verlieren die anderen
Damien Hirst wusste schon die florierende Wirtschaft zu nutzen - nun meistert er ihr Scheitern. Der Künstler als Leitbild der Krise.
Artist and crisis / At times one wins, at times others loose
Damien Hirst knew how to use the flourishing economy - now he masters its failure. The artist as model of the crisis.
>>> just quickly posting the link (german only / here a private english translation pdf can be found

… more to follow

The Capital Crime

‘Das Kapitalverbrechen / The Capital Crime‘ is the title of the coming week’s cover story of the german magazine ‘Der Spiegel’. It is an extensive report, which attempts to create a timeline for the understanding of the developing of the current financial crisis.
For the moment I only want to pick out two points, which I thought specifically interesting and/or telling and will either post here english references from the net or my own translation. I won’t add further comments for the moment, but highly appreciate any feedback.

point 1) “Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.” brought up by Warren Buffet, one of the richest guys worlwide, as early as March 2003. >>> BBC reference / alternet reference

point 2) “If you just take and pass on mortgages, thus remove them spatially from the borrower and tie them to bundles together with other mortgages somewhere else, you depersonalize them from the original business. You cut the connections. And you ignore the nature of globalization, where everything is interconnected. But indeed you cannot cut connections any longer, as everything returns, because anything has an effect on everything. You bet on houses in Ohio and thereby might ruin the national economy in Iceland. You should be aware of these facts.”
excerpt taken from a german ‘Der Spiegel’ quote of Dov Seidman

These points reminded me again of Strange Weather ….. “In an increasingly confusing world, Strange Weather offers the opportunity to draw connections between the seemingly mundane details of your everyday life, and shifts in the increasingly unstable global environment.”

Beautiful Inside My Bank Account Forever…

I tried to put together some articles which give an outline for the Damien Hirst auction in September, which fell together with the first days of the financial crisis. (During the weekend of September 13–14, Lehman Brothers declared bankcruptcy, auction was held on the 16th .. btw they had some early Hirsts in their collection..)

Aside from this eventually interesting fact one can definitly state, that Hirst’s idea about making ‘the art market more democratic’ eventually did not have any major effect.

“Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” his one-artist, two-day auction at Sotheby’s.
In a move that some say has the potential to change the face of art dealing, Mr. Hirst has cut out his dealers — the New York-based Gagosian Gallery and the White Cube in London — and taken his work straight to auction.

Damien Hirst’s Next Sensation: Thinking Outside the Dealer
Damien Hirst sets new auction record with ‘Investment Banker in Formaldehyde’
Damien Hirst: Beautiful Inside My Bank Account Forever…
Markets Slide, But Hirst Auction Breaks Records

Peter Aspden, an arts writer for the Financial Times, said the exhibition sales are “evidence that there are those who are insulated from the real world.” The superwealthy buyers who are attracted to a sale are not likely to be affected by the fiscal circumstances of the past few months, he said.

.. and as he needs it so desperately:
Damien Hirst X Levis Fall 2008 Spin Denim Auction

WSJ: Sign of the Times: National Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

From the Wall Street Journal

Sign of the Times: National Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

The national debt clock, the unofficial tracker of the federal deficit maintained by the Durst Organization in New York, has reached its limits. Last month, as the national debt exceeded $10 trillion for the first time, the clock ran out of digits to record the number.

The dollar sign in the clock had to be deleted and replaced with a one to record the massive number. The clock’s owners say a new model — with space for two extra digits — will be in place early next year.

Now the debt clock will be able to reach the quadrillions. Hopefully, that’s not a level that will be breached any time soon. –Phil Izzo

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