Commissioned by the RISD Museum and featured in thier publication Manual.
In 2009, as the global economy was struggling with an ongoing financial crisis, fears of additional economic turmoil fueled the search for a new currency that could operate apart from traditional regulated means. In January of 2009 an anonymous programmer developed and released the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. This new digital currency met the interest of investors seeking a decentralized economy and also fueled a dark
web market through its blockchain system, which allowed transactions to remain anonymous.
The Times is a project that maps out the ongoing life of Bitcoin from two perspectives. First, the printed piece examines the upward rise of Bitcoin’s value in relation to major global events. The second component is a video that focuses on the cast of criminals, exchanges, companies, and heroes surrounding Bitcoin. Both components begin with reference to the first bitcoins ever mined, where the programmers embedded within the blockchain code the text “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”—a headline from the London Times newspaper—as a direct reference to the chaos that forged the desire for such a currency.
