
Urban Intervention
NO
MONEY
CITY
Hasn't this happened to you that you wanted to do something, (let's say going to cinema or drinking a cup of coffee,) and you realized that you didn't have enough money. This idea would save you from that "Oh I just need a few more dollers (or whatever currency you use)!) crisis.
Here I present is "No Money City," where we can use other resources in place of money for getting things or services. For example, if you're someone who's really good at cleaning, you could eat in a restaurant in return for cleaning the place, or you could play the guitar and entertain people to get where you want to go on a bus if you happened to not have enough money for the fare.
We know that money is not the only way we measure values. Money is just a tool to communicate with others who have different lifestyles and desires. But sometimes we forget that and rely too much on monetery system to a point where it becomes the only way to solve our daily problems. The idea of "No Money City" is to shift that thinking a little bit, and welcome more diverse ways to exchange values.
From August 2021 to August 2022, I carried out a project called "No Money Life" in which I didn't earn/spend money in Kobe, Japan. For those of you who don't know, Kobe is a relatively big city in the country. Through the project, I learnt so many things; what I really value, what people seem to value, how our lives are established on money, and so on. Then I wondered "what would the city look like if we as a community less relied on money in our daily life?," which led me to the idea of "No Money City."
In the beginning, we can form a small group of people. In the group, we discuss things to offer to others, based on what each person is good at, what we like doing, or what professions we have. Then, go and live our own life. But from now on, you can go to one of the group member's and ask for something instead of offering something. Then as you keep doing it in a group, you invite others to the circle. One day, you might notice the town you live in has become the big big version of your no money group in the first.