Culture Briefings

Swap or sell?

Yesterday I dropped in at the student exhibition at University of the Arts. A bunch of book-making students had their wares for display and for sale. A particularly engaging letter-press card set by a female student caught my eye and I asked her if she owned her own business. She shrugged and as though the idea was totally alien to her, said, ‘ I’m still in school. I’m a junior." The quality and sophistication of her work suggested otherwise or maybe I was just feeling so awed by the creative energy in the room and the intellectual breadth of these students, that I was unable to differentiate between professional and student work.

As I looked through other student’s displays, my ears caught a lingering piece of conversation the junior was having with her next-table neighbor. It went something like this,

Next Door neighbour: so did you sell anything?

Junior female: A little… but I made tons of REALLLY COOOOOOL swaps.

Next door neighbour: Yes!! Swaps are wayy coooler.

I was sort of bemused to hear this. In such a creatively charged atmosphere — there was little to none importance given to the monetary aspect of the product. What got these students more excited were the swaps they made with one another. A poster in exchange for a set of cards — or a letterpressed book in exchange for a framed photograph. The swapstories go on.

I wondered why ’swaps’ were cooler than ‘being paid’ for your work. And that’s when it occured to me, swapping is such a strong two-way exchange of likeminded synergies. Whether it is a mutual relationship that two brands agree upon without exchanging any money, or two budding entrepreneurs swapping their skills to move further — I found this phenomena way more exciting than a simple commerical transaction. When no money exchanges hands - parties are more involved in each other’s works and the feeling of ‘connected-ness’ is definitely more pronounced.

In other news, University of the Arts has created The Center for Creative Economy to focus on driving creative growth in Philadephia and beyond. On May 22nd (Tuesday) the visionary economist and professor Richard Florida will be speaking at the University about his concept. I will be there and would love to meet up if any of you plan on being there.