the wild and awful pursuit of an indefinite object

""the wild and awful pursuit of an indefinite object"" is a conceptual exploration of the relationship between economics, economic simulation and art. The first version of this work consists of a generative video installation and a lecture performance. The video installation is a simulation of the board game Settlers of Catan, with the program taking on the role of all four players. The rules of the game have been extended by phenomena of the contemporary market economy, in particular those from financial capitalism. Commodities are given a dynamic market value that reacts to the behavior of the players. At the same time, the players themselves, as ""companies"", have a market value that is composed of raw material stocks (liquid capital) and settlements / cities (fixed capital). Based on this, there is also the possibility of a ""hostile takeover"", in which settlements and cities are bought up - the simulation thus usually ends in the monopoly of a single super corporation, which extends over the entire playing field. The lecture performance treats the theme of economic simulation as a constitutive moment in the artist's biography. A collection of essayistic texts circulates around questions of economic gamification, speculative thinking, and ""creative destruction."" In it, the artist also summarizes the experiences of the last 5 years at the art academy, in reflection of the economic position(ing) of art.