Bahar Noorizadeh is an artist, theorist, writer and filmmaker based in London. Her work explores the histories of neoliberalism, speculation, finance, fiction, credit, value, the weird and the unknown. In Free to Choose, she explores the credit banking system as a time-travelling machine through a story set in Hong Kong that spans decades. Free to Choose is created in collaboration with animator Rudá Babau and the experimental opera group Waste Paper Opera.
Free to Choose begins with an opening monologue from economist Milton Friedman, taken from his 1980 US Public Broadcasting Service television series. Friedman believed neoliberal systems were the surest route to a prosperous and free society. Following its release from the UK's governance, Hong Kong retained control of its economic system despite being handed over to the Chinese government. Friedman hailed Hong Kong as a "free market utopia" that would "set an example for the rest of the world". Much like the economic worlds built within the metaverse and gaming platforms of today, Hong Kong was a testing ground for neoliberalism, spearheaded by its Western colonisers. The results shaped the economic policies of Western powers in the decades to come. In 2023, despite once claiming the highest rate of public housing in the world, Hong Kong now holds one of the widest wealth gaps and most lucrative real estate markets on the planet.
Free to Choose pushes Friedman’s theory to the extreme, presenting Hong Kong as a delirious and absurd financial utopia. Bahar describes Free to Choose as a "financial science-fiction opera" or "fi-fi opera" that depicts the credit system of the future as a Central Time Travel Agency, regulating time travel between Hong Kong circa 1997 and Hong Kong in 2047.
Underpinning the opera's narrative is Bahar's extensive research on economists Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, philosopher Michel Feher, and architect Rem Koolhaas. Free to Choose brings together a luminous animated CGI world of a vivid and disorienting future megacity and a cast of unpredictable inhabitants with a playful script and dream-like plot.
The narrative follows Philip Tose, the former racing car driver and CEO of Hong Kong-based Peregrine Investment, as he attempts to survive the 1997 economic crash by borrowing a lump sum from his older self in Hong Kong in 2047. Travelling through a wormhole time tunnel, Tose navigates the floating public housing megastructure of the 'Space of Flows', which extends across the Pearl River from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and Macau to Hong Kong, in a networked constellation of cities named the Pearl Megalopolis. Tose encounters the hierarchies that divide a future world in his search for his future self. Financial nepotism is rife: the credit system is corrupt, 'McRefugees' seek sanctuary in McDonald's, and a group of low-credit-score activists, the 'Untrustworthies', are fighting back and demanding free time travel for all.
The phrase “the risk is my company's…the risk is mine” repeats throughout the opera, highlighting the differences between personal risk and collective impact. Free to Choose demonstrates the effects of singular interests and actions on our present and future.
