Infinity, art and the meaning of life
Performance Lecture 1
An artist talks with an economist
A one-person performance lecture involving a debate between an artist and an economist and the emergence of the Artist-Economist.
An artist talks to an economist is an art work that recounts an artist’s experience with infinity and the resulting blueprint for a new economics. The performance uses a lecture format (including powerpoint presentation) as an art media.
The performance is approximately 20 minutes in duration and includes a debate on economics between two aspects of one person, the economist and the artist. The lecture climaxes with the emergence of the Artist-Economist and a call to action for a radical new economics. Politics and religion have failed us. Art is the only hope!
“ARTISTS OF THE WORLD UNITE” The Artist Economist
The performance-lecture has been performed in a theatre, two galleries, and a church:
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The lecture was most recently performed at the opening event of Art in Romney Marsh on 19 September 2015.
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The lecture was also performed at the De La Warr Pavilion off-site Dear Serge event on Saturday 25 July 2015 at Project 78 Gallery, St Leonards.
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This work was previously performed twice a day over the 10 days of the University of Brighton MA Fine Art Show 2015 (5-12 July 2015).
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It was originally performed at Fringe Binge! a night of interdisciplinary performance by five MA students from the University of Brighton. Part of the Brighton Fringe (18 May 2015 at Marlborough Pub Theatre, Brighton)
Performance Lecture 2
Human Essence, non-Euclidean geometry and commodity market equilibrium
The 2nd lecture of the Artist-Economist is entitled ‘Human essence, non-Euclidean geometry and commodity market equilibrium‘.
Although I still used the lecture format as an art medium, I decided to use my body to deliver the ‘slides’ rather than a powerpoint presentation. Focusing on the labour market, I used my body to deliver the slides and graphs showing the typical demand and supply analysis of conventional economics. In going from a 2D slide presentation to a 3D analysis demonstrated by my body, I was able to experience new insights into Marx’s Labour Theory of Value. Introducing my experiences of infinity as an artist into the analysis, and throwing off the shackles of non-Euclidean geometry, the new economics emerges. Rather than one market equilibrium point, the new economic analysis demonstrates infinite equilibrium points. Delivering the lecture with my body really gave me a sense of the economics from within and the equilibrium became internal rather than external. Infinite supply and the end of demand resulting in the firm policy implication that nothing is everything. This is a radical new labour economics.
It was performed at ‘The Shag’ performance evening on Thursday 12 November 2015 at Muxima Café, Bow, London.
Performance Lecture 3 (WORK IN PROGRESS)
The 3rd lecture from the Artist-Economist takes the new economics, Immaterial Equilibrium Economics, and applies it to an analysis of Brexit to obtain new insights into the issue of the UK leaving the EU.
This ambitous work is made up of 4 lectures of approximately 10 minutes, each expounding a different proposition.
The work is made to be delivered live but will also be made available soon as four short videos online in order for this important analysis to reach all interested parties.
A draft outline of the lecture is set out below:
Proposition 1 – Framing and the Artist
Looks at the European Union as a frame and draws parallels with the frame in art. How the frame is the convention to indicate art and non-art. And what happens when the border between art and non-art is breached. This includes observations both on the EU single market and immigration.
Proposition 2 – My place in the frame
Locating myself both as an artist in infinite space and as a citizen of the EU. Drawing a new frame in relation to how I locate myself in the European Union.
Proposition 3 – Outside the UK Government Frame
Taking the UK HM Treasury analysis of the economic impact of Brexit, and reinterpreting the evidence through the lens of the Artist-Economist, radical insights are gained allowing a re-presentation of the evidence using both audio and visuals.
Proposition 4 – Framing and Freedom
Considering the EU as both an economic and a legal frame. Analysis of the framing of the four ‘freedoms’ of the EU internal market (goods, services, capital, workers) and the implications of the artist’s experience of infinity for these markets.