Banana Coin

2023
Video installation
Commissioned by Hong Foundation

Talent
YEH Yi
Director of Photography
LAN Hao Lun
CHEN Po Wei
Assistant Camera Operator
WU Chin Lin
Art Director
WU Jia Rong
Assistant Art Director
CHEN Wei Chen
Editor
CHEN Ting Wei
Sound Design
Bai-Shiang Music Studio
LIOU Zih Ci
Wardrobe＆Makeup Artist
TSENG NaNa
Colorist
LAN Hao Lun
Food Designer
CHENG Ching-Hsin
Video Installation and Game Design
Showing Vision Studio
Kyle Zhang
Special Thanks
Panasonic PoME
Zhong Liao Township Farmer’s Association
Taichung Branch, Bureau of Standards, Metrology & Inspection, M.O.E.A.

The “Banana Coin” project is named after the Japanese military currency that was used in Asian areas controlled by Japan during World War II. The ten-dollar banknotes featured a motif of a bunch of bananas hanging from a banana tree. Hence, the nickname “banana money” by the Malays. At that time, the currency was printed by the Bank of Taiwan, a colony used by the Japanese empire as a base for its “Southern Expansion Doctrine.” Since the currency did not have any reserve requirements, excessively printing led to inflation and rapid loss of value, eventually rendering the currency “worthless.” From 2016 to 2017, various factors including oil export caused devaluation of the Malaysian currency, leading to it being mockingly referred to as “banana money” in the local newspaper.

As an economic crop grown in colonies, banana plantations became intricately related to colonialism, transnational enterprises, as well as imperial military power and intervention in the early 20th century. Meanwhile, growing economic crops requires high efficiency of land use, and environmental issues are often overlooked due to the negligent use of agrochemicals and extensive monoculture farming. Today, we still suffer the consequences. From another perspective, the empire’s desire to control “bananas” from the tropical regions also turned bananas into a symbol of imperial ambition for expanding territory and trade, creating a massive political and economic network.

This work consists of three interconnected parts. Weather Forecast of Banana Plantation, a video installation combined with a real-time weather tracking system, features two channels projected onto opposite sides of a wall. One side displays a map with anchor points marking banana plantation sites resulting from transnational trade or companies. The other side shows the weather conditions of these sites, along with reconstructed images of the “banana money” banknote. Meanwhile, the work is incorporated with computing technology to simulate sounds of real weather conditions, and includes an AI-generated reading of banana prices and sounds indicating inflation over the course of more than eighty years. These elements form a non-stop loop of repeated content.

In the short film Isoamyl acetate, the artist creates a young female character from the future who travels through various historical scenes, such as past banana plantations in Taiwan, banana inspection and grading, as well as the transportation of bananas to ports, inquiring into both the past and the future. A song sounding like an operatic aria is used throughout the film. It is composed by re-editing sounds from a human voice database. The melody composed of unidentifiable, meaningless syllables instead of understandable, real words. This short film is connected with the weather forecast system and is synchronized with Weather Forecast of Banana Plantation.

“Banana Coin” is an ongoing project. In its first version, published in 2023, the audience could play a customized online clicking game to win banana coin NFTs, which were used as tickets to join and bid on banana sculptures in an auction. These banana sculptures, a total of ten pieces, were made of aluminum-bronze, the material used to mint the NT$1 coins. The bidding price for each banana sculpture started at the number of NT$1 coins equal to its weight, and the highest bid won. The auction was hosted by the protagonist in Isoamyl acetate, who acted as the auctioneer and steered the development of the event.

《香蕉幣》計畫的名稱來自於第二次世界大戰時日本在亞洲的佔領區所使用的軍用手票，由於十元鈔票正面印了一串垂掛自樹上的香蕉，所以被馬來亞人暱稱為「香蕉票」，由當時作為日本帝國南進政策重心的台灣的臺灣銀行印製。在戰爭後期，由於該貨幣不具備準備金制度，以及濫印所引起的通貨膨脹使得該貨幣快速地喪失價值，成為「不值錢的東西」的代名詞，直到2016年到2017年間因石油出口等因素所造成的馬來西亞貨幣貶值期間，當地報紙也以「香蕉票」揶揄當時的馬幣。

作為殖民地經濟作物，香蕉的種植在20世紀以降便與殖民主義、跨國公司以及來自於帝國的軍事能力或干預緊密相關，同時，由於經濟作物栽培中講求高效利用土地、未謹慎控制農藥使用劑量以及單一品重大量種植所帶來的環境問題，直到今日我們依然受到影響。從另一個角度而言，帝國對於掌握來自熱帶地區的「香蕉」的慾望，也使香蕉成為帝國在國土以及商務貿易範疇擴張的野心的象徵，並且創造了龐大的政治、經濟網絡。

本件作品分為三個彼此連動的部分：《香蕉園天氣預報》是一組即時與天氣系統連動的影像裝置作品，共有兩組畫面，分別在投影牆的兩面顯示，一側透過游移在眾多因為跨國貿易或跨國公司所出現的香蕉園的錨點所標示出的地圖位置；另一側由香蕉票圖像所重新建構的圖像演繹了該位置即時的天氣狀況，並且透過演算，交錯疊加播放了模擬真實天氣的聲音，以及AI人聲唸誦的過去八十多年香蕉價格與通貨膨脹率聲音，形成24小時不間斷與重複的內容。

《乙酸異戊酯》是一部短片，片中虛構了一名來自未來的少女，在她的跨時空旅行當中，沿著台灣過去香蕉種植、檢驗分類、運送至港口的歷史場景中移動，試圖向過去也向未來探問。片中穿插了一首有如歌劇般的樂曲，由人聲資料庫裡的聲音重新編輯而成，實際上則是一首無法辨識、沒有語言的歌曲。這部短片與天氣預報系統連結，與《香蕉園天氣預報》連動播放。

《香蕉幣》計畫是一個正在發展中的計畫，在2023年第一次發表的版本之中，觀眾可以透過玩線上點擊遊戲贏取香蕉幣的NFT，以此做為進入香蕉拍賣會的入場券，參加以新台幣1元硬幣同等材料鑄造的銅香蕉競拍。共有10支銅香蕉，每一支香蕉分別以其重量等重的一元硬幣作為起拍價，價高者得。在拍賣會中，《乙酸異戊酯》的主角以拍賣官的角色現身活動並且引導整場拍賣進行。