Nathan

05 Feb 2013

What: I was recently (last 2 months or so) introduced to the tulip mania of the Dutch Golden Age. Tulips, at the peak of the period sold for more than 10 times the wages of a skilled craftsmen in the Dutch empire, or what is today approximately 1 million dollars. One day in February, the prices of tulips fell like a brick: from 100s of thousands to a few dollars. the Dutch, who created capitalism, had the first ever Speculative Bubble and the first ever ‘bubble crash’. I think that this is extraordinarily compelling. That the pitfalls of modern civilizations were realized and forgotten, is something I wish to talk about in my Data-Visualization.

How: I envision a very long flowering bed of tulips installed in a place for everyone to see. I want to plant the tulips according to set intervals during the climactic peak and fall of the Dutch tulip mania.

I believe that this is an interesting subject and I want to create this installation with a mix of beauty and gravity.