Hypothetical Value
Film Essay (2024)
Hypothetical Value explores the tension between measurable and immeasurable worth—questioning how value is constructed when it cannot be clearly quantified through traditional systems such as barter, gifting, or auction. The film reflects on poetic, emotional, and temporal forms of value that fall outside monetary frameworks, drawing attention to how norms and power dynamics shape our attachment to money.
The project began with the exchange of a 356 sq.m. acrylic painting for a poem written by a stranger along the Thames River. This initial trade set off a chain of exchanges, prompting questions around shared value, acceptance, and meaning. What connects these objects and moments? If we were to measure them, what unit would we use—price, time, distance, emotion?
356 sq.m. of acrylic painting was exchanged for
920 characters / 172 words of a poem, which was exchanged for
26:21 minutes of conversation at a Thai grocery in London, which was exchanged for
5,541 miles of Thai lottery footage, sent by Timpika from Thailand.
The film also confronts the limits of these exchanges in commercial contexts. Attempts to barter in real-life markets were met with rejection—underscoring the persistent authority of money. In response, a public intervention was staged on London Bridge, where the film was screened through an unused cash machine. Passersby were invited to "auction" the rejected objects, questioning the role of monetary systems in assigning value and how worth shifts across place, time, and culture. An item dismissed in one setting might carry deep meaning in another.
