Moment in time
What happens when money changes?
Osaka, Japan
Money is something we use every day, rarely stopping to think about what it actually means.
Created as a breakout space for a cryptocurrency conference in Osaka, the experience offered somewhere visitors could step away from the conference and encounter something a little different.
The concept explored the past, present and possible future of money through a sensory, participatory journey. Along the way, a scavenger hunt invited visitors to search for fragments of NFT artworks and Kong notes — a new form of physical “crypto-cash” being launched at the conference.
Before it began
Before entering the experience, visitors were invited to take off their shoes, change into slippers and sit with a bowl of matcha tea. The space was scented with lemongrass, creating somewhere to decompress from the conference before beginning the journey.
Only when they were ready did they move on.
Past
The first space explored only after passing though a dark tunnel suggesting a passage though time in to a exhibit based on the origins of physical money through its materiality rather than simply explaining its history.
A white sheet, slowly dripping with black ink, evoked traditional printing processes, accompanied by a soundscape that made the transition into the experience sensory as well as visual.
Present
The present imagined a world in which money had become all-consuming.
Time, reality and ethics became increasingly difficult to hold onto as visitors searched through an overwhelming office environment for clues, fragments of NFT artworks and hidden Kong notes.
The space was designed to feel mind-numbing and consuming. Unexpectedly, the scavenger hunt amplified exactly that behaviour: people became increasingly absorbed in searching, often losing sight of everything else around them.
Future
The final space opened up.
After the density and disorder of the present, visitors entered a lighter, hazier environment exploring a future in which physical currency had disappeared.
At its centre was Graham Fudger's kinetic artwork, imagining the banknote as an obsolete object in an increasingly digital world.
