PSYCHOECONOMY!
Corporate Summit 2010

INTRODUCTION

Psychoeconomy is a platform for discussion and artistic research, proposing an alternative approach on various global issues. Each edition will consist in a public event and the publication of the resulting conclusions and texts and graphic materials.

Issue #1: Corporate Summit 2010

Fort the first edition is proposed the organization of a meeting in order to discuss the international financial crisis and prevailing monetary exchange systems among artists who deal with the issue of the economy in their work through the tactical use of the media, the appropriation of corporate strategies or irony.  Banks, technology companies and even micro-nations are just a few examples of the corporations (some fictitious, and others not), created by the artists invited.

The main objective of the meeting will be to elaborate a document as a declaration regarding the current state of the crisis that will include the positions adopted by these “corporations” in the face of the crisis, along with a series of proposals and alternative actions agreed upon by their representatives.  This declaration, along with the proposals set forth by each “corporation” will be compiled in a publication.     

Taking full advantage of the singular arena for reflection and distribution created by the art field, the meeting will attempt to generate dialogue between the participating artists’ projects, which entail propositions that deal with deconstructing everyday practices, social order, individual routine and the routine pertaining to areas of personal interaction and exchange along with their protocols.  This means questioning technological media’s promise of democracy and equality as well as a critique of the will to control that lies concealed beneath their ostensible transparency. 

THE PUBLIC EVENT (DESCRIPTION)

The Summit will involve three activities:

Activity 1: Round table and panel discussions

This activity will consist of a round table and panel discussions to present each “corporation’s” projects.  They will be moderated by Gustavo Romano, Director of the Time Notes bank and the promoter of this encounter, including participation by Georg Zoche, founder of the Transnational Republic, Fran Ilich, Director of SpaceBank and Daniel García Andújar, Director of Technologies to the People.

Activity 2: Internal Debate 

This activity will consist of debates among the summit’s participants, during which they will work on reaching an agreement on a final declaration.  The text that emerges as a result will be presented the last day of the summit.

Activity 3: Final declaration 

This activity will consist of a public presentation of the declaration, a round table and an open debate.

Agenda

1st Day
Morning:
Internal discussion on the declaration.
Afternoon:
Presentations

2nd Day
Morning:
Internal discussion on the declaration.
Afternoon:
Presentation of the Declaration.
Round table.
Closing ceremony.

THE PUBLICATION

For this issue, we are planning the following contents:

• The declaration on the crisis: The main content of the publication will be the declaration that will emerge from the meetings, based on an agenda of subjects that the artists will discuss in order to arrive to an agreement.  

• A space for each of the four artistic projects selected: This section will compile each “corporation’s” proposals, and it will be a free graphic space for each of the four invited artist.
• Frequently Unanswered Questions (FUQ): Each artist will answer five questions asked by the magazine editor.
• News and reports: Several short reviews about related topics. For example: Silvio Gesell Free Money Theory; the Hell Bank Notes, the Chinese tradition about money for the dead people;Interviews to artists like David Lamelas, Leandro Katz, etc.
• Advertising: Space offered to each “corporation” to promote some of their products or services.

• Editorial: An introduction by Psychoeconomy.

PARTICIPANTS

Daniel García Andújar
Barcelona
Technologies To The People

With the confirmation that new information and communication technologies transform our everyday experience as his point of departure, Daniel G. Andújar creates a fictional piece (Technologies To The People, 1996) with the aim of making us conscious of the reality that surrounds us and of the deception of certain promises of free choice that inexcusably are converted into new forms of control and injustice.

He is an historical member of irational.org (a point of reference internationally in net art) and the creator of numerous internet projects, such as art-net-dortmund, e-barcelona.org, e-valencia.org, e-seoul.org, e-wac.org, e-sevilla.org, etc. He is participating in the 2009 Venice Biennial in the Catalunyan pavilion.   

http://www.irational.org/tttp/primera.html
www.danielandujar.org

Fran Ilich
Tijuana
Space Bank

True to its slogan, “purify your money”, the Space Bank offers a set of innovative and revolutionary ideas applied to banking, speculation and investments according to the catchphrase of helping you to reach your objectives without harming others.  Among the services they offer are investments in the commodities market by way of Zapatista coffee or corn, or financing art, literary and tactical media projects. 

Fran Ilich is a writer, media artist and digital activist.  He has participated in numerous international events.  Among his projects figure Borderhack, an art camp located on the border between Tijuana and San Diego, and Possible Worlds, an autonomous cooperative server launched on the occasion of the Zapatista Army’s Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle.

 http://spacebank.org/
 http://sabotage.tv/

Gustavo Romano
Buenos Aires - Madrid
Time Notes / Promoter of the 2010 Summit

The Time Notes project comprises a series of actions carried out in public spaces utilizing a monetary system based on units of time (bills of 1 year, 60 minutes, etc.).  Following an initial action developed and launched in Berlin in 2004, offices have been set up in Singapore, Rostock, Vigo, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, soon to be joined by Madrid and Munich.  One of the services provided is the Reintegration of Time Lost, which is offered as a place for the reception and classification of time ceded on a voluntary basis, under pressure or for arbitrary reasons.

Gustavo Romano is a Buenos Aires-born contemporary artist who works in a variety of media including installations, actions, net art, video and photography.
Many of his projects are presented in various stages of preparation, at times even cross-branching into new projects.  He uses media and technology devices as well as objects that pertain to our everyday life, decontextualizing them in an attempt to oblige us to rethink our familiar routines and preconceived notions.  

He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006.
www.timenoteshouse.org
www.gustavoromano.com.ar

Georg Zoche
Munich
Transnational Republic

The Transnational Republic is a group of artists working to construct the first Transnational Republic, where citizens are defined by the similarity of their beliefs and feelings. The new republic will represent its citizens on a civil level, for the first time not succumbing to national interests but rather concentrating on global concerns.

Founded in 1996 in Munich, Germany, byGeorg and Jakob Zoche, it has grown to include more than 4,700 citizens as of June 2009, and has been represented at international conferences and meetings throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. The Transnational Republic’s currency is the "payola", emitted by the Central Bank of the United Transnational Republics.
 http://www.transnationalrepublic.org/

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