Reciprocity is generally a conversation for ivory towered, bearded or be-spectacled, sometimes dead, almost exclusively white intellectuals.
Mauss, Adorno, Testart, Hyde
It is also the most current and significant ethical debate effecting media and democratic discourse.
My intent is to inspire a conversation about the ‘value of free’ in the media forum. I aim to foster a collective discussion which considers two basic questions:
- What is a gift and what is a tool of indebtedness?
- Who should give, and who can take?
For those receiving art works on my behalf, I consider reciprocity as any act of communication, public or private, that furthers this conversation about ethics and gift economies.
From n+1 magazine (Issue 8, Recessional, Fall 2009, The Intellectual Situation, Keith Gessen):
It is no evil thing to want the average value of each individual life (as measured by the person living it) to increase year by year, or to want our society to grow more valuable to us over time. Growth and development are the mottos of life at large, only lately appropriated by capital. The fatal error has been to confound prices with values, and to assume that increased resource exploitation is identical with the growth of human or even economic values.
