(RE)MONIAC

In 1949, engineer-turned-economist William Phillips designed and built the Monetary National Income Analogue Computer (MONIAC), using water to model economic scenarios involving imports, exports, taxation, savings and wages. Once used by governments, universities and think-tanks, MONIAC fell from favour as neoliberal economics emerged.

RE:MONIAC reimagines Phillips’ machine for London Design Festival’s A Kind of Exchange. Users control water through slide-gate valves representing economic expenditure and consumption. At its centre, two cast-foam replicas of Margaret Thatcher’s hands rise and fall with changes in national income. Referencing Thatcher’s final Commons appearance in 1990, the installation explores inequality, trickle-down economics.

‘A Kind of Exchange’

Bank of England Museum x London Design Festival

September 2026.