-----Original Message----- From: euro at cryptic.demon.co.uk <euro at cryptic.demon.co.uk>
>January saw the launch of a new virtual currency, the euro. The euro
is the first purely corporate currency: you can only spend it if you
have a
credit card, write a cheque or work for a bank as a currency dealer.
Coins
and notes will not exist until 2002, though there are prototype note
designs on the European Union website: I have borrowed these designs,
and you
too can borrow them from this site:
>
>http://www.cryptic.demon.co.uk/euro/cash.html
>
>The euro is an idealistic project, and the notes, designed through a
>competition, are very bland. The neutrality of the imagery tries to
>represent fiscal probity and European unity. The effect is also to
mask the terrible histories of national conflict in Europe, which the
euro is
>supposed to help prevent happening again. Despite this laudable aim,
the suspicion exists that this currency is more for the convenience of
global corporations than for citizens. Behind the gleaming electronic
facade
of the new Europe, poverty and inequality are still widespread.
>
>You are invited to design alternative notes, with imagery which
perhaps more accurately reflects either the contemporary situation, or
histories of European peoples. You may wish instead to question the
notions of
currency or value exchange.
>
>Once done, send an e-mail, with the image(s) attached. All designs
will be displayed at this site:
>
>http://www.cryptic.demon.co.uk/euro/notes.html
>
>10 designs will be chosen to be printed into alternative euro notes.
>Another will be added to make 11, one for each of the States in the
>Euroland. The money will then be transported to Lorient, Brittany in
the Strange Case and put on display at the internet art festival x-99
in
March:
>
>http://www.x-arn.org/x99/
>
>The remaining designs will also be on display through a net terminal
next to the case. Some notes will be distributed to people at the
festival, perhaps also used in an attempt to purchase drinks.
>
>Participation in this project will have several dimensions:
>
>the exchange of simulations of a virtual currency, which only exists
in electronic or written form;
>
>a design competition;
>
>the printing of "counterfeit" currency;
>
>the smuggling of this currency into the Euroland from a non-euro
zone; the display of said currency in public;
>
>hopefully, some artistic and critical discourse on the nature of
money (whether "real" or electronic), perhaps also some questioning of
the
realities of contemporary Europe.
>For further information, visit:
>
>http://www.cryptic.demon.co.uk/euro.html
>
>http://www.cryptic.demon.co.uk/case.html
>Coin - Note - Sign
>the strange case of the euro
>euro at cryptic.demon.co.uk
>http://www.cryptic.demon.co.uk/euro.html