L. Michael Goldberg Greed, Fear and Irrational Exuberance
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University of New South Wales College of Fine Art School of Art History and Art Education Doctor of Philosophy Thesis and Documentation L. Michael Goldberg Greed, Fear and Irrational Exuberance – The Deep Play of Financial and Cultural Speculation 2012 ‘Greed, Fear and Irrational Exuberance – The Deep Play of Financial and Cultural Speculation’ Abstract: This thesis is based on a body of work completed between 2001 and 2009, comprising performance/installations that addressed the impacts of global financial speculation and the mechanisms of a free-market economy. Arguably, financial speculation has either driven, or profoundly influenced, political policy and social behaviour ‘from Wall Street to Main Street’; from the corporate boardrooms of developed nations to the informal markets of nations still struggling to come to terms with the demise of classical socialism in the postmodern world. Each 24-hour cycle of global financial markets, comprising millions of transactions, represents not only objectively calculated risk management, but also a spectrum of speculators’ emotions ranging between greed, fear, and ‘irrational exuberance’. The performance/installations included in this thesis address the motivations behind speculative market activity, as well as the interaction between the human and technological processes embedded in the markets. Art and cultural critic Brian Holmes posits this interaction as ‘deep play’, or ‘the aestheticized exploration of the actions and gestures unfolding within a global microstructure’. The microstructure referred to in this thesis is that of the global financial market, its foundations, development and impacts on contemporary society. My exploration will unpack aspects of the history and current manifestations of the free-market economy, and while it is not the intention of this thesis to theorise economics, nor the phenomenon of globalization, certain premises will be addressed as relevant to the projects. In the process, shared borders between the financial market and art practice have inevitably become blurred. The methodological enquiry that underscores this thesis does not reject the free-market economy, nor speculative financial activity. Instead, I have suggested that they might be critiqued by means of cultural intervention. I imply that by direct participation in capital flows, and through exposure to the fears and anxieties bred in the financial market’s domain, the complex elements that have produced, and continue to produce significant impacts on society, might be better understood. 1 Contents Synopsis p.4 Introduction p.14 i. Key Art-historical Considerations: a. Systems Aesthetics p.14 b. Post-studio Practice and Situational Aesthetics p.19 c. Relational Aesthetics p.22 ii. The Context for the Thesis Projects p.24 iii. The Thesis Projects p.27 Chapter 1: Understanding the Game of Mammon i. Market Mentality p.51 ii. From Specie to Virtual Money: a. Gold p.54 b. The Evolution of Virtual Money p.60 iii. Technology, Capital Flows and the ‘Ultimate’ Market p.64 Chapter 2: Democratising Capital and Culture i. The Speculator as a Cultural Figure p.68 ii. Booms and Busts p.72 iii. The Need for Speed: The Democratisation of the Market p.76 iv. The Need to Know: The Democratisation of the Media p.80 2 Chapter 3: First-person Trader i. Computer Simulation Games and Online Trading p.90 ii. The Immersive Trading Environment p.95 Chapter 4: Reading the Signs i. A Complex System p.98 ii. Technical Analysis of the Market p.100 iii. A Brief History of the Candlestick Method p.106 iv. The Candlestick Method: a System of Signs p.108 Chapter 5: Global Flows i. Terror, Paranoia and the Markets p.116 ii. Cuba a. ‘Homeland, Socialism, or Death!’ p.123 b. The Biennale Effect p.130 Conclusion p.138 Appendix 1: Further Examples of Candlestick Patterns p.150 Appendix 2: catchingafallingknife.com web archive p.153 Bibliography p.154 3 Synopsis This thesis contextualises a series of my performance/installations completed between 2001 and 2009. The projects addressed financial markets and the free-market economy as constructs that have either driven, or profoundly influenced, political policy and social behaviour ‘from Wall Street to Main Street’1; from the corporate boardrooms of developed nations to the informal markets of nations still struggling to come to terms with the demise of classical socialism in the postmodern world. The projects considered the socio-historical conditions of contemporary capitalism, as well as the mechanics and strategies of financial speculation made manifest through market trading technologies and their interfaces. Commenting on one of the projects catchingafallingknife.com (2002), U.S. art and cultural critic Brian Holmes describes the relation between these processes as ‘deep play’2, borrowing from anthropologist Clifford Geertz’ use of the term in his study of ritualised betting in Balinese cockfighting. Geertz posits that the strict formalities of the higher levels of cockfighting, where significant amounts of money are wagered, are as much about the honour and dignity of the participants as they are about material gain – where ‘to engage in such betting is to lay one’s public self, allusively and metaphorically […] on the line’.3 Holmes ascribes to the notion of deep play ‘the aestheticized exploration of the actions and gestures unfolding within a global microstructure’4, which aptly describes my exploration of the mechanisms and gestures of the global financial market; its foundations, development and impacts on contemporary society, where the choreography of the marketplace can be as much a reflection of desire and status as it is about profit motive. 1 This unattributed expression has become a frequently used metaphor for the relationship between corporate America and the small business interests of America’s middle class. 2 Brian Holmes, Escape the Overcode: Activist Art in the Control Society (Eindhoven; Zagreb; Istanbul: Van Abbemuseum Public Research #02, 2009), 132. 3 Ibid. 4 Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (Basic Books, 1973), 434. 4 Each 24-hour cycle of global financial markets, comprising millions of transactions, represents not only objectively calculated risk management, but also a spectrum of speculators’ emotions ranging between greed, fear, and what Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board in 1996, famously referred to as ‘irrational exuberance’ when describing the speculative financial market fervour of that decade.5 While it is not my intention to theorise economics or globalization, I will address certain premises where appropriate. In the process, shared borders discovered between financial markets and art practice will inevitably become blurred. For example, a visit to the gallery where the performance/installation catchingafallingknife.com was staged, which for three weeks involved the buying and selling of shares in Rupert Murdoch’s global media company News Corporation, might have posed problems for a viewer expecting to encounter a work of art. Questions levelled by exhibition viewers addressed the nature of the activity being observed. Was this project evidence of someone’s profession in the financial industry? To which criteria and aesthetic categories should one refer when appraising this work? Perhaps the confusion understandably arises when, to paraphrase performance artist Vito Acconci, ‘art functions no longer as a noun, but a verb’.6 Acconci is relevant here. He once observed, ‘You do art as a mathematician, as a physicist, as a biologist’. The wisdom of this conundrum is revealed as he ventures further: ‘If there is no point at which it is certain that art is a product of the activity one is engaged in, then it becomes […] a general attitude of thickening the plot’.7 If one struggled to locate the art in catchingafallingknife.com – if ‘art’ seemed no longer adequate in comprehending the experience – then confirming Acconci’s view, the attitude of the artist/performer was to encourage a ‘thickening of the plot’. Slippages between the role of artist and that of stock 5 Alan Greenspan, The Challenge of Central Banking in a Democratic Society, address to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, 5 December 1995. Full text: http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/1996/19961205.htm (accessed: 13/09/10). 6 Frazer Ward, Mark C. Taylor, Jennifer Bloomer, Vito Acconci (London; New York: Phaidon, 2002), 10. 7 Ibid. 5 trader were encouraged, for the artist was not so much being a stock trader, but behaving like one for the purposes of the project. I as artist/performer adopted a repertoire of tactics and employed strategies to achieve ends that were ultimately ambiguous. The result could either be read as a socio-political critique, or simply an endgame between chance and probability. In fact, the intention of these projects was to critique financial capitalism and its geo-political impact. In so doing it became necessary to understand the language of financial markets and the strategies used to participate in them. The introduction to this thesis begins with reference to art history. Systems Aesthetics touches on Jack Burnham’s influential essay ‘Systems Esthetics’, which refers specifically to examples of the 1960s systems-based work of Hans Haacke. Further art-historical examples provided in this section tender the free-market system and its representation as compelling subject matter for visual artists. My performance/installations were site-specific either in