VISUAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES

thenorthroom

"A public mourning raises the price of black cloth (with which the market is almost always understocked upon such occasions), and augments the profits of the merchants who possess any considerable quantity of it." --Adam Smith

Fundamental to an understanding of our current economic model are concepts of limitlessness and an infinite capacity for growth, on the one hand, and discreteness, the individual unit, and scarcity on the other. This model promises an ever-expanding supply of capital, while exalting the values of competition and self-interest. Figurative strategies pervade the language of the economy, and it is through language and visual representation that the economic imaginary of capitalism takes shape. This project looks at the production of this imaginary and how we, as individuals and collectives, project a notion of the economy and our relation to it.