by Zhiqiang Li

When we pick up money or tap a card into a machine, subtle sounds are produced. These sounds are usually ignored because we see money as value but rarely hear it as vibration. Yet they form a hidden soundscape: the quiet acoustics of power, social order, and value in circulation. Each confirmation marks an approved action, and every transaction leaves a sonic trace of economic exchange. Repetitive and discreet, these sounds quietly shape our society.

This project is a live performance based on modified financial devices. Machines used for receiving money such as POS terminals, banknote counters, are altered with microphones that amplify the sonic traces of economic transactions. Through gestures such as touching, folding, tapping, and inserting money into these devices, everyday exchanges are transformed into sonic material. These automated and often unnoticed moments are amplified and composed into a piece of music made from money itself.

In this performance, money becomes the instrument, the performer, and the subject simultaneously. Instead of music being shaped by capital, capital itself is transformed into music. By listening closely to these minor sonic vibrations produced by money, the audience is invited to reconsider their subtle influence on society and everyday life.