Competition: we've teamed up with designers Beta Tank to give away five signed copies of their new book Taxing Art.

Based on their design project of the same name (see our earlier story), the book highlights the effects that tax laws have on art and design.

Beta Tank present the latest piece in their Taxing Art series in Milan this week at Piazza San Marco, 1 ingresso via Solferino 20121 Milan.

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Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

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Here are some more details form publishers Gestalten:

In recent years, the boundaries between art and design have become more and more blurred. It is not the object itself, but rather its economic functionality that determines where design stops and art begins—and this functionality is reassessed at every link in the chain of the object’s dissemination. In fact, it is often customs officials who subjectively decide what constitutes art and design based on their personal views and erratic local tax laws.

Taxing Art is an insightful case study by Beta Tank that illustrates the influence of tax laws on art and creativity. The Berlin-based studio created a series of “blended” work, which was partly handmade and partly machine-made, and sent it around the world. Naturally, this resulted in differing customs duties. The book is a buoyantly ironic, clever documentation and analysis of the effect of traditional, bureaucratic procedures on innovative work.

Beta Tank, explains cofounder Eyal Burstein, hopes Taxing Art will fuel a dialog about “how true innovation and creativity, that which crosses boundaries and moves into the unknown, can be actively pursued and matched within existing categories and assumptions about business practices and results.”

The book puts a spotlight on the effect that tax laws have on art and design. Because this aspect is largely underestimated, Taxing Art is as revealing for artists, designers, curators, and event managers as it is for lawyers and tax officials.

Beta Tank is a conceptual product design practice that uses design objects for social commentary based in Berlin and London, founded by Michelle Gauler and Eyal Burstein. They received the Designer of the Future Award by Design Miami/ and W Hotels in 2010 which recognizes young, emerging designers whose work reflects exceptional innovation and beauty in limited-edition design.

Buy this book and others at the Dezeenbooks store
(in association with amazon.co.uk)

Congratulations to the winners: Kerrin Go in Amesterdam, Nicholas Oldroyd in London, Daniel Istrate in Illinois, Joe Froggatt in West Yorkshire, Majid Dadgar in Ohio.