Gratis - Published and distributed 6 June 2006 in and around Utrecht, (NL).
swop project - swop book - radical software - circulations - story space on gift economies - swop interviewarchive
- hidden flow shop - give away shop
Story Space on Gift Economies
Part 3: The Free Newspaper Gratis
Gratis - Published and distributed 6 June 2006 in and around Utrecht, (NL).
INTRO TEXT FROM THE FRONT PAGE OF GRATIS
Open Source Culture
A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon "a favor for a favor.
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia.
This paper is published by Swop Network, an artist collective initiated in 2003 by Andrea Creutz (SE) and Lise Skou (DK) as a part of the project Story Space on Gift Economies produced by Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht.
Swop Network is a platform for the production and dissemination of materials and ideas surrounding contemporary political, economic and social debate. Swop Network examines how art can function in a social and economic context, presenting different models for economic systems that function as counterparts to the dominant systems, investigating the potential for local economic systems to impact the global economy.
The newspaper you are holding in your hand is given away for free, and is based on the model of other free newspapers, such as Metro and Spits. It was produced with the collaboration of a number of self-organized groups in Utrecht, as an attempt to highlight gift economies as alternatives to the dominant profit-based economy. While newspapers, such as Metro and Spits are also given away for free, there is an obvious difference in motivation when brought into relation with the activities of some of the groups that you will read about here in GRATIS. One could argue that these free papers could be viewed as commercializing the distribution of information, and watering-down political standpoints and public debate, which is the direct opposite of the projects and initiatives represented in this newspaper.
Initiatives featured in GRATIS, such as Food Not Bombs (who distribute free food), the Give Away Shop, and free radio projects, spread information freely through open source channels. This paper looks at how these alternative systems of distributing material goods, information and services are structured, what lies behind them, and what they represent. For example, by giving everything away, the Give Away Shop 'Weggefwinkel' (Utrecht) positions itself outside of the dominant profit-based system and, as such, presents an alternative. FNB is based upon volunteer work, collecting food that would have otherwise gone to waste, 'recycling' it into fine meals that are handed out for free. These activities are what Karl Marx called 'interstices'.
The interstice is a space in human relations which fits more or less harmoniously and openly into the overall system, but suggests other trading possibilities than those in effect within this system. It creates free areas, and time spans whose rhythm contrasts with those structuring everyday life, and it encourages an inter-human commerce that differs from the 'communication zones' that are imposed upon us [1]
The interstice is a meeting point where participation itself is a primary good. Open source culture is another means to rediscover missing forms of giving and exchanging.
Swop Network is interested in how these alternative models Ð that we have chosen to call Open Source Culture are able to alter existing relations, and in the effects or goals of the recycling and reusing of resources? This form of openness is also reflected in artistic practices, as described by Mark Tribe in his book California Specific:
People still find interesting the idea that art can be thought of a social practice, rather than an individually authored objectÉis not only the product of a solitary thinker, but can also be the collective result of a group of people in conversation [2]
Swop Network positions itself in an interdisciplinary area between research, art and activism. Via collaborations and networks we try to settle in different communities and places around the world to build up strong relations as a means of changing structures. We see this project as an interstice, as Bourriaud describes:
This is the precise nature of contemporary art in the arena of representational commerce: it creates free areas, and time spans whose rhythm contrasts with those structuring everyday life, and it encourages an inter-human commerce that differs from the communication zones that are imposed upon us
GRATIS crosses national borders and disciplinary boundaries to bring together a variety of voices and points of view in order to visualize and communicate global models for economic counter-strategies, linking together economics, demographics, and environmental issues in order to gain a more complex political viewpoint.
GRATIS was produced in collaboration with the groups of people that Swop Network interviewed and visited in and around Utrecht from Februar -May 2006 as part of the project Story Space on Gift Economies at Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory.
Swop Network has also set up an interactive story space at Casco, which is a free, editable space that is open to participation from visitors, which will continue to run on www.swopnetwork.dk. Extracts from the 'Story Space on Gift Economies' are published in this paper.
SwopNetwork/Andrea Creutz & Lise Skou, June 2006
Casco , Office for Art, Design and Theory, Oudegracht 366, Utrecht 3511PP
T/F: +31 (0)30 231 9995, info@cascoprojects.org, www.cascoprojects.org
[1] Bourriaud, 2002, Relationel Aesthetics
[2] California Specific Mark Tribe, 1994
Pulsk Ravn
designing the free newspaper Gratis