Agliomania, eating and trading my stinky rosesby Shu Lea Cheang

Re-published as part of The Human Face of Cryptoeconomies at Furtherfield Gallery, 2015

Thanks to Shu Lea Cheang, Annick Rivoire.

This article is extracted, with kind permission of the editors, from MDC #76 We Grow Money, We Eat Money,

We Shit Money.

THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE MCD#76 IS AVAILABLE HERE:

http://www.digitalmcd.com/la-version-anglaise-du-mcd76-est-disponible

We grow money

16 - mcd #76

Checking in on the timelineYear 2001 marked the Argentina peso crisisand the popularization of “Los clubes detrueque”, a micro-monetary system thatemploys an internal paper money, Crédito,against the defunct macro-peso economy. Year 2001 marked the major collapse ofdot.com bubble. The boom of internet-basedcompanies during the years 1997-2000 suf-fered major setbacks.Year 2001 marked the harvest of 10,000 gar-lic, multiplied from the initial 10 planted in

1991, for my farmer friend Tovey Halleck inupstate New York.Year 2001, I travelled high and low plugginginto the rich air that offers free open wire-less network access. January 1, 2002, euro coins and banknotesentered circulation.

* Garlic is the golden bulb, the stinking rose. *

In 2002, I launched Garlic=Rich Air(1)

with Creative Time in New York City.“Creative Time presents Garlic=Rich Air thesecond and third phases of St(r)eaming theFields, a field harvesting and public networkproject conceived by Shu Lea Cheang with fund-ing provided by the “Challenge to the Field”award from Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fundfor Independent Media.

“In a fictional ‘after the crash’ scenario, organ-ic garlic has been recently ordained as newsocial currency, serving as ‘credito’ for a glob-al shared network. In the first phase of thisproject, Cheang organized the harvesting of10,000 garlic plants, cultivated by organicfarmer Tovey Halleck in upstate New York, bygenerations of old and new media artists thissummer. These organic cloves, which took

10 years to multiply, constitutes the garlic stan-dard in this artist initiated economy.” [Pressrelease, 2002]

Garlic Credito Trueque ClubStarting September 1st, the Garlic Creditotrading system was launched online wheremarket denominators include digital bytes,bandwidth, domains, URLs, network, sys-tem and software. This second phase of theproject invited public audience to join theGarlic Credito Trueque Club by signing upfor online trading with the digital com-mons. Members accrue garlic credito byinvesting digital images, programming codescripts and other virtual items for trade. In this participatory economy, the value ofthe credito is created by the Trueque Clubcommunity.

Get Garlic–Go Wireless Wireless network nodes as Mobile UrbanFarm Stands.Once the valuation of the garlic credit hasbeen established, the third phase of the proj-ect focuses on enacting a virtual to physi-cal commodities exchange through NewYork City’s wi-fi network. “On September27, 28, 29, 2002 a designer truck equippedwith loads of garlic and wireless technologyserves as a mobile urban farm stand. The truckutilizes selected New York City wireless net-work nodes for online and onsite street trad-ing activities. Members of online CreditoTrueque Club can exchange virtual garlic withedible organic garlic at the designated truckposts. Passersby are welcome to participate ingarlic trading with their own offers.” [CreativeTime press release, 2002]

In 2003, Garlic=Rich Air(2), reloaded inyear 2030, was presented at the 50th

Venice Biennal and in ARTPORT at theWhitney Museum of American Art, NYC.“Garlic=Rich Air, dated 2030, anticipates apost-capitalist society where the global econ-omy and currencies collapsed, network mediacrashed. The work envisions organic garlic asthe new social currency–bought, sold, and trad-ed to establish a new and free media tradingsystem. Garlic=Rich Air sets forth a monetaryrelationship between URL information and vir-tual garlic. Visitors are invited to participate©

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Garlic Truck. Design: Mieke Gerritzen

AGLIOMANIAIn 2002, Cheang launched Garlic=Rich Air with a fictional “afterthe crash” scenario in which organic garlic was ordained as newsocial currency, serving as credito for a global shared network.The garlic banknotes, the G currency, were custom-designed,modified for each city/country where the project was exhibited.From 2002 to 2010, Garlic=Rich Air revised as AglioMania travelled through New York, Venice, Naples, Novi Sad and Bristol, mocking the real-life trading system and with this fake but surreal alternative system.

eating and trading my stinky roses

WE GROW MONEY - mcd #76 - 17

online and submit various URLs in return forvirtual garlic, ‘G’. At the close of the G-Mart,virtual ‘G’ is cashed in for real farm-grownorganic garlic; a commodity that is desired andwholly revered in the year 2030.” [CreativeTime press release, 2003]

After the Crash: Final Liquidation SaleJoin the G-mart (Garlic Mart) online wherethe commodity is network media and the currency is Garlic, “G”, G as credito. Sell your dot.com, dot.net, dot.org, dot.us,dot.tk, dot.info, dot.TV… If it is still worthanything, earn “G” with it.

Rules of the Game were established forG-trading.(1) Upon SIGN ON, you are awarded 10,000 Gas GARLIC CREDITO.(2) SUBMIT websites (URLs) as SYMBOLSfor the trading floor.(3) SET value, shares and price per share foryour submission.(4) THE Gmart FLUCTUATION is deter-mined by clickstream data.(5) Keep a personal PORTFOLIO for Gmarttracking.(6) The personal GAIN & LOSE of G is cal-culated as per trading activity occurs.(7) ALL Gmart tradings are VIRTUAL.(8) ALL symbols are COMMODITY COM-MONS.

(9) G volume TOTAL determines theexchange rate of G and GARLIC.(10) END GAME: redeem GARLIC withyour G total.

By year 2008, commissioned by Palazzodelle Arti for its L’Impresa dell’Arteexhibition in Napoli, I launched AglioMania.com(3). “AglioMania refers to TulipoMania that tookplace in the early 17th century Netherland. During this time, tulip bulbs were traded forenormous prices and eventually crashed, thusthe term bubble economy. AglioMania intendsto recreate the same maniac trading phenom-ena with aglio produced in Italy during the 6 weeks of Enterprise of Art exhibition atPalazzo delle Arti Napoli. Bulbs of aglio framed as art objects enterthe bidding market. A trading system withgarlic credito is established for the publicto bid, own and trade the desirable agliobulbs. AglioMania takes the public on arollercoaster enterprise ride by engaging thepublic in market frenzy of an illusionaryboom. Ultimately, the get rich aglio schemesare smashed when farmers march into thePalazzo delle Art with trucks of aglio. For the closing of the show, a popular upris-ing liberates the aglio and invites the townpeople to feast on AglioMania.” [Conceptnotes, 2008]

Invited to participate in the Wealth of Nationsexhibition, AglioMania went on to tour NoviSad (Serbia, 2009) and Spike Island (UK,2010). For these two shows, Serbia’s 1000dinar bill and the one pound note from Bankof England's wartime emergency release weremodified as garlic credito. One fabulous gar-lic bulb was designated as the object of pur-suit to mobilize bidding frenzy. A la JosephBeuys Kunst = Kapital, AglioMania propos-es Friends = Kapital, mocking the social net-work’s circle of friends. The garlic credito areearned by signing on your friends to join thebidding scheme. More friends, more money,more power to bid. The highest bidder final-ly gets the desired garlic bulb on display inthe gallery.

Shu Lea Cheang

(1) http://garlic02.worldofprojects.info(2) http://garlic03.worldofprojects.info(3) http://agliomania.com

http://creativetime.org/projects/garlicrich-air/

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Aglio Credito: Italia, Serbia, UK.Design: Fabio Lapiana

Shu Lea Cheang is an artist, filmmaker, networker. Currently situated in post-netcrash BioNet zone, she takeson viral love, bio-hack in her current cycle of work.http://mauvaiscontact.info