[Reader-list] A second tulip mania

[Eric Kluitenberg]

Funny Taha,

This metaphor was of course highly popular with regards to the demise  
of the 'new economy' at the beginning of this wonderful millennium...

At the time we organised a stingy little conference, at the  
instigation of Geert Lovink, called Tulipomania DotCom to develop a  
critique of the new economy. It started when things still looked  
marvellous in '99 and took place in June 2000 a few months after the  
DotCom bust. Amazing experience to see this particular investment  
bubble climax and implode.
So, perhaps we should call this implosion a third tulip mania - though  
the real message here is that these kind of implosions are simply  
systemic, and to some extent deliberate, just the scale of this one is  
different.

Later I compiled all materials that came out of the conference,  
including a very good reader Geert put together, in a web dossier on  
the Balie website called "In Memoriam: The New Economy", which also  
contains some follow-up pieces.

For those enticed by this "Schadensfreude" over imploded investment  
bubbles you can still have a look at it here:
http://www.debalie.nl/dossierpagina.jsp?dossierid=13515

It's good to have a memory!

Unfortunately we did not yet record all events for posterity at the  
time, though we might quite soon reconstruct the audio recordings of  
the event.
(we're working on a comprehensive audio archive).

bests,
Eric


On Apr 2, 2009, at 9:12, Taha Mehmood wrote:
> Dear All
>
> Seems like the recession is going to have an adverse effect on art
> market too. The writer of the article below makes an argument by
> comparing the rise of 'contemporary art' in recent years to mania
> which surrounded the sale of tupil bulbs in 17 century. So, after the
> futures and derivative bubble, the housing sub-prime bubble, it
> appears that the time has come now for the contemporary art bubble to
> burst.
>
> Regards
>
> Taha
>
> http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10474
>
> The prices of contemporary art works have risen to astonishing levels
> in recent years. Insiders say it’s because we have been living through
> a golden age of art. Nonsense, argue Ben Lewis and Jonathan Ford, it
> is a classic investment bubble
> Ben Lewis
> Jonathan Ford