Accelerating Passions
Framed Futures competition first prize
The Fugue
One channel video (played on iPad in furnace)
performance of a person being trapped between twoho library cabinets, overlaid by a generative adversarial network imitating the visual composition by successively generating patterns, discriminating them against the given data, and creating a binary output.
fugue, Merriam-Webster Dictionary
noun
/ˈfyüg/
1
a
: a musical composition in which one or two themes are repeated or imitated by successively entering voices and contrapuntally developed in a continuous interweaving of the voice parts
The organist played a four-voiced fugue.
b
: something that resembles a fugue especially in interweaving repetitive elements
… a story that … is as rich and multilayered as a fugue.
— Heather Vogel Frederick
2
: a disturbed state of consciousness in which the one affected seems to perform acts in full awareness but upon recovery cannot recollect the acts performed
Fiscal Orography
Girbe Voogd: 65 graphs and tables on Zug, crypto, and taxes.
Digital print;
Geometric and abstract shapes, graphs, tables, or maps make visible what was previously
invisible. They allow us to see the way in which we understand the economy or organisation
in question. They transform the multidimensional world of capital, institutions, and
communities with its large number of inhabitants into a two-dimensional world filled with
geometric and abstract lines, shapes, figures, and numbers, giving observers a reassuring
perception of the rationality and wholeness of the order they are confronting.
For centuries, the inhabitants of the canton of Zug made a living from the dairy industry and
livestock breeding, making it one of the poorest cantons in Switzerland. Today, it is one of
the richest cantons, with only 1.2 percent of the population employed in agriculture¹.
This transformation is largely due to the presence of international corporations in the region.
These companies began relocating to Zug around 1950, attracted by low taxes, regulatory
clarity, and the openness of the canton. Many of these firms are not Swiss-owned; they are
registered in Zug while their operations take place elsewhere.
In 1949, Zug’s per-capita corporate tax income was close to the Swiss average. By 1980,
however, per-capita taxable profits had risen to roughly ten times the national average, and
by 2019 they remained approximately 6.6 times higher than the Swiss mean².
This development was due to major tax reductions initiated in 1946, with taxes halved by 1950.
Today, Zug has the lowest tax rate in Switzerland (approximately 11.8–13.6%). In 2019,
Zug’s per-capita taxable profits reached CHF 149,000, compared to the Swiss average of
CHF 18,300³. This indicates that Zug attracts a disproportionately high number of highly
profitable companies relative to its population size. Multinational corporations, trading firms,
and wealthy individuals register their profits in Zug even when their economic activities take
place elsewhere. Many firms are not Swiss-owned, and the canton hosts a significant
number of holding companies and wealth management firms, which generate high taxable
profits but employ relatively few local residents.
In 2013, “Crypto Valley” emerged in Zug, building on an already established ICT, IT, and
finance sector, as well as the canton’s openness to innovation. At the time, Bitcoin was still
relatively unknown and often associated with illicit activities such as money laundering and
drug transactions. However, Zug’s low taxes, business-friendly government, and established
financial and technological infrastructure made it attractive for blockchain entrepreneurs.
Johann Gevers, for example, chose Zug as the base for his company Monetas, aiming to
build a broader blockchain ecosystem.
Bitcoin Suisse, founded in Zug in 2013, became the first cryptocurrency financial service
provider in Switzerland and is now one of the largest in the country. The canton itself directly
became involved in this ecosystem by introducing blockchain-based digital identities and
experimenting with blockchain voting systems based on Ethereum. In 2021, Zug began
accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum for tax payments of up to CHF 100,000. Today, Crypto
Valley hosts around 719 blockchain companies, representing approximately 41 percent of all
blockchain firms in Switzerland and Liechtenstein⁴.
Zug represents one of the clearest European examples of a small jurisdiction transforming
itself through fiscal policy, legal innovation, and integration into global finance.
Its rise from apoor agrarian canton to a hub for multinational corporations and blockchain ventures is
economically significant, but also politically and ethically contested. The case of Zug
highlights broader questions of tax competition, regulatory arbitrage, and global capital mobility.
1. Zug in der Welt. (n.d.). Zugs wirtschaftlicher Aufstieg seit 1815: Der Weg von einem armen zum finanzstärksten Kanton.
https://www.zuginderwelt.ch/artikel/zugs-wirtschaftlicher-aufstieg-seit-1815-der-weg-von-einem-armen-zum-finanzstaerksten-kanton-2/
2. Auer, R., et al. (2024). Corporate Taxes and Profit Shifting in Switzerland. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). https://www.nber.org/papers/w31830
3. Brülhart, M., Jametti, M., & Schmidheiny, K. (2012). Competition, Harmonization and Redistribution: Corporate Taxes in Switzerland.
4. CV VC AG. (2025). Crypto Valley Company & Industry Report: Five-Year Growth Analysis (Data to January 1, 2025).
Palimpsets of Cicatrix
Hair and scoby
Bathtub, showerhead in concrete, kombucha in aquarium, dried up scoby on unfolded cardboard box, broken sink, glasses filled with molding food sealed with cement.
Studio 1 (Wooden cabinet)