FINAL MAJOR PROJECT (1) — SET-UP & PRIMARY RESEARCH

Topic: Religion of Money
Timeframe: 02/10/23–23/11/23
Team: R.Hodge, R.Suri, T.Singh & Myself

Final Major Project (FMP) is a self-directed research-led project carried out over 10 (term-time) weeks, and also, the pinnacle of my MAUX journey at University of the Arts, London.

the team ❤ we successfully collaborated earlier in the course, so the perspective of symbiotic collaboration took precedence over ‘matching interests’.

We decided to dedicate our time to investigating ‘The Religion of Money’.

Both capitalism and religion permeate almost every aspect of life, society and emotions — the way we understand our purpose in life and place in society, through the way we chose to structure our beliefs and create relationships, to how we spend our Sundays.

To systematically uncover interactions and beliefs embedded within these systems, we chose the employ the paradigm funnel. The funnel method is true to its name — it is an approach to researched topic from the broad to the focused. From broader contextual observations (1, 2) to interactions (3,4) to individual experiences and narratives (5, 6).

We made the decision as a team, to first complete the funnel, and after that bring all of our findings together and tackle analysis.

We spent the couple of weeks before the beginning of the fall term reading, researching, talking to people; gathering information about religion, money and everything in between. Our research was then analysed as a whole, using the thematic coding method, in an effort to uncover common themes, shared sentiments and productive points of friction for further inquiry. We first coded the material individually, after which we came together to compare, evaluate and unify our insights into a comprehensive analysis outcome.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

1. LITERATURE REVIEW / DESK RESEARCH

To create a comprehensive overview of the current discourse and draw out interesting insights from the intersection of religion and money, we conducted systematic literature review and looked into art and design projects created around the topic of money — Brixton Pound, Money as Data, Value of Money, Defaced!, Money Money Money.

2. AEIOU

To explore the correlations between religion and capitalism in the physical world and on a macro scale, we conducted AEIOU research in their respective institutions — churches as the places of worship of religion, banks as 'the places of worship' of capitalism.

for AEIOU we visited the places of worship of religion and capitalism — churches (southwark cathedral) and banks (The Ned and Bank of England). We observed the places themselves — size, light, auditory environment, architectural elements, objects — as well as mood and behaviours each space elicited.

we organised our observations for thematic analysis

3. ARTEFACT ANALYSIS

To explore the physicality of objects and their attached interactions on a micro scale, we conducted artefact analysis.

We analysed the artefacts of capitalism — coins and notes. We analysed two prominent personal artefacts which have their place in both religion and capitalism — books/bible and decorative jewellery/religious jewellery.

We looked into material, aesthetics, interactions, social and psychological ties people have with these items, as well as their history.

artefact analysis of cards — we observed the evolution from physical to digital transactions, the status attached to association with different banks and banking services, digital transaction’s impact on privacy and the trace our digital transactions leave on the world.

artefact analysis of cash (notes and coins) — we observed the immediacy of loss of physical money (compared to digital), the difference in use of physical currency among economic groups groups — symbol or necessity, mental work involved in calculating how much to pay in cash

artefact analysis (jewellery and books/bible) — we observed difference of value (and to it attached difference in interactions) stemming from the symbolic importance of the religious counterparts of these artefacts

We followed up by investigating the more ‘personal’ side of research. Directed Storytelling and Love&Breakup Letter allowed us to understand impact of religion and capitalism on individual people’ s lives in more concrete terms. We created a topic guide from our existing findings, which allowed us to ask open-ended but inquiry-specific questions from within our research context.

ETHICS
Interviews, recordings, letters, workshop data and images were collected for research purposes only and obtained with consent of the participating parties, following the ethical guidelines outlined by the University of the Arts, London.

4. DIRECTED STORYTELLING

Directed storytelling revealed more nuanced insights into the impact of money on how we think about our place in the world.

We carried out our research with with 22 participants which were both in education and in employment, both religious and non-religious, age age 20–45, based in London. The interviews were conducted both in person and online. with the consent of our participants, we gathered our data via voice recording and videos.

In this excerpt from directed storytelling, the participant talks about her ‘bittersweet relationship’ with money — how different life events influence her feelings about money, and how these feelings are always subject to change due to personal circumstance

In this excerpt from directed storytelling, the participant talks about his perspective on money, and how it controls people and keeps them ‘in their place’, reflecting on religion’s influence as the more prominent force of control

5. LOVE LETTERS & BREAK UP LETTERS

Letters prompt respondents to relate to money on a deeply personal level, letting surface the — good and bad — emotional sentiments.

the love&breakup letter were conducted either ‘by assignment’ (we reached out to people and asked them to write the letter, scan it, and send it to us) and online (through instagram prompt). we have received 15 pairs of love & breakup letters addressed to money

CRITICAL REFLECTIONS & LEARNINGS

This inquiry made me recognise myself as researcher interested in contextual and situated inquiry of lived experience. I organically lean towards the context of human experience, looking at experiences through the lens of space, system, network of relationships and identity within which it lives.

Who are you, and why?

READ ABOUT THE REST OF OUR RESEARCH AND ITS ANALYSIS, AND THE FOLLOWING WEEKS OF THE PROJECT HERE: FMP 2 / FMP 3 / FMP 4 / FMP 5 / FMP 6 / FMP 7 / FMP 8 / FMP 9