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".