High art and high finance

The concept of financialisation has emerged primarily within political economy to analyse the discrepancy between booming finance and underperforming production. According to this body of literature, financialisation is fundamentally a political process revolving around the regime of accumulation. This presents a new challenge for market studies. In its earliest form, market studies maintained a political agnosticism that centred on calculation and calculative devices; their political implications and accompanying structural transitions have been largely unexplored. 

Dr Ban Lee's doctoral research traces a material political economy of financialisation to construct the agencement of art finance. It examines a case study of ArtTactic, an art market analysis firm that offers art market reports, bespoke research for art market participants, and art finance education in the forms of lectures and podcasts. The study explores how financial devices are designed, introduced and enacted in the market. It shows how ArtTactic conducts performative works to implement these devices within and against the unique institutional structure of the art market.

Dr Lee submitted his thesis in May 2023 and had a viva in August 2023, examined by Professor Ruth Woodfield and Dr Josiane Fernandes from Lancaster University. He was supervised by Professor Philip Roscoe and Dr David Dowell. 

Ban is currently working as a Senior Research Associate at Lancaster University Management School. He also teaches as a Guest Lecturer at Sotheby's Institute of Art.