Money Actions & Free Money

Money Actions and Free Money are an ongoing series of situations in which I give away money in various settings, exploring the interactions and experiences that result.

The Emancipation of Money at Open Engagement, May 18-21

I’ll be at Open Engagement in Portland, Oregon May 18-21 with a new project, The Emancipation of Money.

The Emancipation of Money is an experiment in circulating an alternative form of currency (the Free Dollar) among the participants of Open Engagement. With no predetermined purpose or use, the Free Dollar is designed to invite questions and provoke interactions. Hand printed “dollars” will be infiltrated into the social community in a number of ways: left for the taking on open plates, given in spontaneous acts of admiration or amusement, slipped into publications and papers, or offered on request.

The Free Dollar intentionally has no specific use. It has no denomination, no conventional value. It is not, like the Ithaca Dollar, the notes of the historic Cincinnati Time Store, or the currency of the recent Time Bank, meant to represent labor. It is closer in spirt to children’s play money, but unlike video game gold or monopoly cash which transmute effort, skill or luck into value, the Free Dollar is untethered to any particular form of reward. Free Dollars, like any kind of money, can be given, stolen, asked for or accumulated. They are peculiar in that they most likely cannot be spent. The Emancipation of Money asks: What can happen to money in the absence of that familiar act of spending?

The Emancipation of Money is part of an ongoing series of Money Actions in which Randolph has been using the social dimensions of money as the basis of an interactional and interventionist art practice. For the past several years she has given away (real) money in streets, stores, galleries, cafés, at talks, at dinners, over coffee, sometimes anonymously, sometimes in groups or person to person. Because money is caged in rules, simply acting outside these rules opens up new ranges of social action and interaction. This project for Open Engagement extends Money Actions beyond the real, into realms of play and invention. It is hoped that a purposeless form of money might offer a means of critically engaging the purposes of real money.

If you’re in Portland, join me at a Happy Hour Discussion on Alternative Economies with Stephanie Diamond, Caroline Woolard, Kathryn Kenworth, Sal Randolph
Location: Shigezo. 910 SW Salmon

NOTE: If you have free dollars with a history written on them, you're encouraged to photograph them, scan them, or send them in to the project archives - contact me at salrandolph [at] gmail [dot] com for details.

[ Open Engagement ]

If You Need Money, Take Some. If You Have Money, Give Some.

Street actions currently taking place in New York and elsewhere.

[ see more ]

Money Actions in the Ljubljana Biennial

I’m excited to report that two Money Actions will be part of the 29th Ljubljana Biennial, opening September 23, 2011. On view will be documentation from “$1 Near Something Red” and “100 Money Actions for 14th Street. A live money action will take place in Ljubljana in November (date forthcoming).

$1 Near Something Red was originally produced as part of The Case of the Curious Pedestrian in October, 2010

[ More information here. ]

Free Money Appointments, New York, Fall 2011

Meet with me, and you will receive a sum of money and a choice.

A number of Free Money appointments will be available in New York over the course of the spring. If you’ll be in New York, and have an hour free to meet up with me in a café, contact me at salrandolph [at] gmail [dot] com to set up a time.

Art in Odd Places 2009: Sign - October 1-31, 2009

Money actions on and around 14th street throughout the month of October 2009.

Art in Odd Places Blog & Money Action Photos

More Actions & Photos

Still More Actions & Photos

Money Actions: February 2008 - May 2009

Follow current Money Action updates on Twitter twitter.com/moneyactions.