The Burning Desire in a Dollar Bill shows how the special interests of media conglomerates and their parent companies mould our latent desires at a young age, later leaving us confused as to whether we are lusting after the sexually charged imagery or the products being advertised. The film argues that the act of purchasing is the strongest aphrodisiac in a capitalist society, leaving open the possibility that a solution to toppling capitalism is to shift our sexual desires from consumerism to personal freedom from the state.
The film was created during a residency at Signal Culture using a modified Paik-Abe Raster Manipulation Unit. A running VHS tape was manipulated using a voltage-controlled eurorack modular synthesizer, allowing the object of desire to be distorted, picked apart, and reveal its true form of capitalist allure.
