"Economics Are the Method;
the Object Is to Change the Heart and Soul"¹
Space and Subjectivity under Neoliberal Capitalism

In 2023, I partnered with my friend and colleague, Matthew Lopez, on a project
which investigated space and subjectivity under neoliberal capitalism. I made a film and Matthew wrote a critical essay that engaged with it.
 
My film centers on Canary Wharf, a 128-acre estate in east London tailor-made to suit the requirements of multinational finance. Despite being privately owned and operated, Canary Wharf was a public-private development. Through a combination of infrastructure investments and enterprise zone tax breaks, the conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and development mogul Paul Reichmann pursued their utopian vision for a new London.
 
Confronted with this site, film became a medium of architectural research, a way to juxtapose architectural form with the ideas that brought it into being. The film uses an eclectic combination of contemporary footage, archival documents, and quotations drawn from the discourse that swirled around Canary Wharf to present an audio-visual investigation of the distinct “uncanniness” of the estate.
 
Lifted from a 1981 interview in which Thatcher reflected on her first two years as PM, the title “Economics are the Method; the Object is to Change the Heart and Soul”¹ gestures towards the historical, political and economic forces that have shaped the figure of Canary Wharf. How does neoliberal economics manifest spatially? What forms of representation are capable of contending with multinational capitalism? How does a space like Canary Wharf act on its inhabitants? These questions animate my project, and the film is intended as an invitation to engage with this space that has long held my attention captive.
 

While my film is not publicly available, you can request access by email. 

Below is our book, which includes Matthew's essay on the film.