David Graeber's notion of debt challenges traditional economic theories, proposing that debt has no definitive beginning. It precedes monetary systems, rooted in social obligations and relationships, transcending transactional origins. A stable river is more than just one that keeps the same broader course. It's been bullied into place, engineered to enable the optimisation of trade. It significantly influences the technosphere, supporting transportation, commerce, and energy fluxes. Yet flooding is symptomatic of a healthy river system, essential for replenishing the alluvial plain. Sediment needs to flux, but how can we manage this within a political economy reliant on stability?
Debt Has No Beginning / Sediment Should Flux
Kelly Van Homrigh
Kelly Van Homrigh is a designer and researcher trained in architecture at the Architectural Association, where she was awarded the AA Honours Prize. Her work examines how systems of finance, governance, and infrastructure produce spatial arrangements rooted in obligation and deferred consequence. With a focus on debt as both a material and symbolic force, they explore how territories are shaped not only by what is built, but by what is promised, extracted, and left unsettled.