Imagining financial futures

Image: Piotr Cichosz (@ptrc)

All too often finance, appears to be an external and capricious force of nature, something that simply happens to people, as if it were following its own inexorable path. But finance is constructed culturally and socially – made by human hands in order to serve particular needs and interests. What is made by human hands can be remade by them also.  

How might the arts help to reimagine and question the future purpose and function of finance?  How can alternative finance models (from cryptocurrencies to community banking) engage with culture – and how might artistic practitioners engage with them?  How could research by arts and humanities scholars into key concepts such as shadows/darkness, trust/promises, expectations/speculations, purity and value, help to challenge conventional economic thinking to open up new possibilities for the future organisation of money and finance? In what ways might re-evaluating alternative monetary practices from the past help us to imagine financial futures?