CA$H was created as
a way for me to explore the nature of currency and how we percieve
value and what we put value into. Even as we turn to digital technologies,
we come into contact with paper currency on an almost daily basis.
Cash has no memory, it has percieved value amongst the masses,
it can be beautiful, and for the most part it is looked over.
We strive to attain more of it but in it's physical form we don't
really pay much attention to it's aesthetic nature and what it
means that we put so much trust in a piece of paper and the bodies
that support it.
This project culminated right at the time
of the unvieling of the designs for the Euro and the redesign
of the US $20 bill. So I designed a variety of $50 bills based
upon some of the questions I have/had about the nature of currency,
value, commerce and trust. Microsoft and Ford were examples of
currencies supported by corporations, one that was an instigator
of the industrial revolution and the other integral in the digital
revolution, both resulting in creating vast fortunes for their
founders. Could we trust financial stability to corporate entities?
I don't feel we could, but what about a trusted relief agency
like the Red Cross? An international organization that distributes
funds globally for relief purposes. Could we put enough trust
in a note created for a good cause? The next three bills deal
with value and it's intangibility, it's true physical value in
the buring money of "Intangible Assets", it's percieved
value with the stereoscopic 3-D money of "Illusions of Value"
to values of self and family in "Self Worth".