The Gift and the Ledger
The Ledger
The incorruptible "Ledger" is the abstract machine that haunts the (restricted) blockchain economy of our Promethean fantasies. Imagine, if you will, an absolutely verifiable and permanent record of all credits and debits, an unimpeachable account of who puts in and who takes out, a means to instantly expose con-artists, counterfeiters, and free-riders for what they are, whenever and wherever they are—forever putting an end to all market failures produced by the erosion of trust. Ay, and more, imagine that the “Ledger” exists everywhere and nowhere, as a decentralized and distributed system. What you have just imagined is the global blockchain economy of the future , “Goodbye, Washington Consensus! Hello, Nakamoto Consensus!”
The Gift
The genuine "Gift", by contrast, is the abstract machine that haunts the deconstructive (general) economy of our Epimethean fantasies. Regard, if you will, our sun, the star at the center of our solar system. In the words of George Bataille, “The origin and essence of our wealth are given in the radiation of the sun, which dispenses energy—wealth—without any return.” Ay, and more, not only does our sun give without any return, our sun keeps no accounts: to think the perspective of our sun is to think nothing of con-artists, counterfeiters, and free-riders. There is no rhyme or reason in playing our sun for the fool: we can trust that our sun will give, give, and give as much as it can, never holding back and never wanting back. Indeed, as Georges Bataille understood, to regard our sun is to regard the general economy of the cosmos that is “always already” operating, that precedes, exceeds, and succeeds any and all restricted economies.
The Workshop
No doubt, the general economy of the genuine Gift is remarkably different from the restricted economy of the incorruptible Ledger, but how are we to conceive of this difference and play upon it in ways that can make a difference to our communities, our institutions, and our relations with human and non-human others? This workshop insists that, instead of pitting the Gift against the Ledger and playing upon the differences between the two and their opposition to one another, we should think the Gift with and through the Ledger and remark upon a difference beyond the two that relates the two to each other. A work of performative theory, this workshop affectively dramatizes the process of “thinking with and through” as opposed informatively describing or effectively demonstrating the process. Inspired by Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, this workshop casts participants as “spect-actors” in a series of improvised pocket-dramas investigating the economies of the Gift and the Ledger.