We don't want your Money, we want your Art!

[dadara]

After the Fools Ark (2002), Burning Greymen (2003), Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia (2008), and the Exchanghibition Bank (2011), this will be my fifth international art project on the Playa: the Transformoney Tree. I posted about its philosophy before on the ePlaya in the excitement of hearing that we received a Burning Man Art Grant.

But this one will be worthless without your interaction, so we started a campaign to get as many people involved as possible; we will need thousands of banknotes, which will be glued onto its tree trunk. The banknotes will instantly lose their financial value, but will take on other values. So as weird as it may sound: we do want your banknotes, but don't need your money!

Since the banknotes are physical real ones, and not virtual cash, people started decorating/customizing them, which is cool, since they won't lose that added value once stuck onto the tree. It's exciting to find all those pieces of art in our mailbox.

To play with this theme even more, we started a crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo, which must be the world's first ever crowd funding campaign which is not looking for money, but just physical banknotes

Here it is: http://www.indiegogo.com/transformoney

I have been working on the scale model in my studio and was getting goosebumps all over while gluing tiny printed banknotes on the Transformoney Tree model, imagining it large scale in the desert with real banknotes...........



I hope together we can mage Magic happen!

[sleaze]

Had a great time on your Art Customization Party
http://blog.artasmoney.com/tree/customi ... materials/

[Sirjohnfoams]

Man that tree is looking good already. Even better than in the sketch before.
But how tall will the real thing be? And will you be shipping it back to Europe when BM is over?
I got 8 new (drawn on) bills for you by the way. Had al little 'customize' party ourselves....

[dadara]

Had a great time on your Art Customization Party
http://blog.artasmoney.com/tree/customi ... materials/

We just received an email that a group of Japanese Burners are coming together on the 23rd of May in Tokyo to throw a Banknote Beautifier Bash, so we will have some nicely decorated Yen coming our way soon. This weekend Burning Man posted our call for banknotes in the JRS newsletter, so I hope to find some cool envelopes soon in our mailboxes. We also received two other mails from people in the U.S. who want to throw an Art Material Customizing Party, and I do hope more will follow.

Together we can make this work.

And to answer an often-asked question: yes, we do accept foreign currencies, after all isn't Burning Man about Radical Inclusion?
This week the Economy Transformers donated some interesting Euro banknotes:



And it might also be good to let people know that we also accept other denominations of U.S. dollars.....

[Danos]

Do you prefer money send to the US address in San Francisco (pls could you provide this once more) or to the Dutch address?
We don't want you to be caught at customs with your pockets full of money
On the other hand you would be the first transparant filthy rich banker in this world

[dadara]

Do you prefer money send to the US address in San Francisco (pls could you provide this once more) or to the Dutch address?
We don't want you to be caught at customs with your pockets full of money
On the other hand you would be the first transparant filthy rich banker in this world

More people have been asking about those addresses, so here they are copy-pasted from the Indiegogo page:

Nathan Richard Phelps, 1201 18th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94122, United States
Bridgewire c/o Transformoney Tree, 1055 Industrial Way, Suite 20, Sparks, NV 89431, United States
Daniel Rozenberg, Govert Flinckstraat 404, 1074 CJ Amsterdam, Netherlands

Yes, I guess pockets full of colored and customized banknotes might raise a few eyebrows at the border

I also wanted to share with you the finished painting/design for the front of the 2.0 banknote which everyone who supplies us with banknotes for the tree will get in return:

[dadara]

It's been a while since I was on eplaya, been too busy in the real world, but I wanted to update you all, and hope to continue receiving your contributions for the Transformoney Tree!



I am showing the model of the tree at my Transformoney 2.0 exhibition in Amsterdam and use it to collect customized banknotes.

The 2.0 banknote, which we are gifting people in return for their real banknotes is printed now, and looks awesome with details printed in holographic foil


Also more and more Banknote Beautifiers/Money Customizing parties are happening around the world, so we made a Google map to highlight them:
http://blog.artasmoney.com/tree/banknot ... worldwide/

Organizing a Banknote Beautifier is easy; 1. Invite a bunch of friends, or just random cool people 2. Organize some booze, snacks, markers, and pens (doing it in a bar will take care of the first two…..) 3. Tell people to bring banknotes – preferably dollar bills, but all currencies are welcome! 4. And then just have fun with money

We hope you will get involved!

Not inspired yet? check out some examples here: http://blog.artasmoney.com/tree/inspiration/

[Gunslinger]

First let me compliment you on your outfits for the exchangehibition last year. Very cool, very creative, and you were some fine looking stylish blokes. (IM me your email address if you'd like 2 pictures I took at your display - I'm not the best photographer)

*Next, are we physically bringing banknotes to BM or are you requesting them mailed before BM takes place? -it may say so on your linked sites but I'm in a time crunch right now and can't net surf until later.
Last, I'm sure you've thought of this, but are you planning on making this art: Frat-boy / vandal / moron proof? In other words, using lacquer or the like to make these pretty leaves less likely to get stolen? I much prefer leaves on trees as I'm sure you do.
Great concept. Always liked your style.

[dadara]

First let me compliment you on your outfits for the exchangehibition last year. Very cool, very creative, and you were some fine looking stylish blokes. (IM me your email address if you'd like 2 pictures I took at your display - I'm not the best photographer)

*Next, are we physically bringing banknotes to BM or are you requesting them mailed before BM takes place? -it may say so on your linked sites but I'm in a time crunch right now and can't net surf until later.
Last, I'm sure you've thought of this, but are you planning on making this art: Frat-boy / vandal / moron proof? In other words, using lacquer or the like to make these pretty leaves less likely to get stolen? I much prefer leaves on trees as I'm sure you do.
Great concept. Always liked your style.

Hello Gunslinger

I am glad you saw us last year, did you also fill out your Spiritual Karma Laundering Contract?

I hear you that you are in a time crunch, but I would def check out the links and philosophy of the Transformoney Tree and read a bit more about it all. Then you'll see that all the banknotes will be glued firmly onto the tree, so they can't be taken. Also that way they will lose all their financial value, but get other values in return. The Transformoney Tree model is a way to collect banknotes, but in the big version they will as said be glued onto the tree.

We like to get as much banknotes as possible before BM, so we can start with lots of banknotes already glued on the tree, hoping that will trigger people to go ; "WTF !", and go back to get banknotes from their cars/RV's etc for the tree, but you can also bring them to the Playa