Here we were set a brief to exchange an object which we had bought for one pound: 100 sheets of white, 70gsm, A4 paper, and end up with an object or set of objects that were more ‘valueable’.

Our system looked at ideas of gambling, particularly the game poker, as an interesting system of exchange. The interest came from the added risk element, the speculate to accumulate model and the repetitive cycle of hands. Poker provided a way of questioning systems of value and trade.

In our game no money was used and instead the players used a variety of objects they had brought to bet with. This resulted in discussion and barter over the objects values. Unlike currency the value of our objects fluctuated rapidly in the micro- economy of the game: a lego man became highly prized and the value of paper plates decreased as the game continued. It created a more organic system of exchange with certain items ending up with more attached value than when they started. Context value played a part in this and certain items began to hold narrative, comic and superstitious associations, this all factored in the objects temporal shifts in value.

I worked on this project with Louisa Cranmore, Liam Healy, and Annett Klich. To view the video we created click here: video