A monetary system designed within the cultural context of B.F. Skinners’ Walden Two. The project imagines a payment system that challenges the established monetary function of ‘a store of value.’ Creating a new method of exchange that encourages people to actively destroy their money during a transaction. The process positively reinforces this behaviour through the creation of music, produced from the burning money within the transaction machine.

Walden coinage is made from potassium nitrate and sugar to produce smoke. The musical notes that are created are linked to the denomination of the money.

Our current market-driven culture heavily influences the design of new payment devices, including how payments function and operate. As a consequence of this market led agenda, the social and experiential impact of new payment methods are often a secondary consideration. Therefore, very few examples of commercial payment devices exist that embody alternative motivations, other than economic growth and financial security.

Historically, the genres of social and science fiction have proposed alternative ideas and provided perspective on technology’s impact upon society. Unfortunately, only a couple of social science fictions have imagined alternative payment systems: these include Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backwards, which coined the term ‘credit card’, and Robert A. Heinlein’s Beyond this Horizon. Social fictions, like Thomas Mores Utopia, often present societies that don’t use money. Popular science fiction novels often reflect a similar payment system in use today. Therefore, the imaginary worlds of literary fiction have offered few alternatives to the current commercial payment motivations.

Walden Note-money is part of a larger design research project, the aim of which is to develop a new design methodology called Counter-fictional design. The counter-fictional methodology borrows aspects from counterfactual history, but instead of imagining alternative timelines, it uses past social science fiction novels as a framework to design radically different technologies within alternative worlds. This Counter fictional methodology aims to both highlight the importance of the impact of fiction upon the real world, and also offer a new playground for designers to imagine radically different systems.

My intention with this project is to broaden the general understanding and challenge the classic economic definition of money, which is:

Money is best defined by focusing on the two principal functions money performs in the economy. Money functions as: A medium of exchange (means of payment)... A store of value (wealth). (Powell, 2009) Page 284.

This project is the first in a series that will imagine monetary systems, which don’t conform to the established economic definition of money, Walden Note-money being the first, challenging the idea that money is a ‘store of value.’ The intention of the research project is to broaden the definition of what money is in order to instigate new thoughts on how it might function and operate. My current (working) definition of money helped inform the approach I have taken to this project:

(From a persons perspective) Currency (a) is an abstraction of reality - its various representations act as a reflection of our personal and collective motivations –
from expected duties, (e.g. Providing for family, taxes & debt repayment),
selfish personal wants (e.g. Status symbols, physical comforts)
or selfless social causes. (e.g. Philanthropy, charitable donations)


a. Currency is an active / in use form of money (b).
b. Money is a thing or idea, which operates within a society as a facilitator of transactions

Overview of the project:

Walden note-money is the first design proposal from a three-year industry funded research project. The PhD research project is funded by Barclaycard and supported by Consult Hyperion (a digital payments consultancy firm). Alongside my personal research into the role of fiction in imagining alternative monetary systems; David Birch (director of Consult Hyperion and payment expert), has contributed to the development of the counter-ficitonal design methodology.

Designing within the social structure of Walden-two.

Walden two is an egalitarian behaviourist society, where the people are trained from an early age to be selfless individuals through behavioural modification techniques. A society made-up of selfless individuals means the traditional functions of money might start to change.

For example; why would a long-term store of value be need if no one desires more than what is required? Who would create this money? Would security features be necessary if people were trustworthy, or could money be used as a way to measure the stability of the society?

How the system works:

During every transaction the seller is obliged to aid the buyer in the destruction of their money equal to the cost of the service or object he/she is purchasing. Through the destruction of money, musical notes are created which are linked to the coins denomination. For example a C is 1 Walden-note, a D is 2, an E is 3 and so on; these notes have two main functions. Firstly the pleasant sounds created help to positively reinforce this behaviour and secondly the burning money communicates the economic state of the society to the 'managers and planners'.

Regarding the creation of the money; every individual within Walden has the right to create money. The planners within the society give guidelines of an average workers pay, but the responsibility of how much was earnt lay with the worker.

How the transaction machine works:

The machine works in a similar way to a pipe organ; but rather than air, smoke is used to produce the notes within the wooden pipes. Walden money is made from potassium nitrate and sugar coins; the money to be burned is sealed in the machine by the seller and then ignited via a fuse wire. As the mixture burns the smoke can only escape from the organ pipes and the Walden 'notes' are created.

Aesthetic of the work:

A rustic aesthetic was employed when designing the machine because the people within Walden Two were encouraged to live a relatively simple rural life but also a life full of experimentation, encouraged to create new objects which may lead to a better society. So that's where the DIY look comes in; each person creates their own individual music creating money incinerator.

Stake holders:

The main stakeholder within every monetary system should be the society and people that uses it. Although this project is part of an industry funded research project, the intended audience is firstly the general public, secondly design academia and thirdly the financial industry.

The Walden Note-money project and the developing design methodology ‘counterfictional design,’ are intended to challenge the classic economic definition of what money is by proposing radically different monetary systems. The design proposals will not be implemented, but they are indented to occupy a space within our cultural landscape and impact upon the audience’s perception of - what money is and how it could function.

As the success in changing the public’s perception of money is intrinsically linked to the popularity of the project; there can be no guarantee what the impact of this approach will be. Therefore the other aim of this project is to create a new methodology for design education. The counter-fictional design methodology will be developed as an educational tool for students within design departments. The benefit of running a design brief using this approach will be to inform the students that every aspect of design is instinctively informed by our current cultural context, and stepping outside of this inherent framework is virtually impossible, yet needed if genuine alternative ideas / designs are to be created