++++ Experiment ++++

[gyre]

I think I understand the social experiment you want to try, but it won't work within this community because there is no barter system. As in, it seems frowned upon.

I do like the idea of you inventing money as an art and gifting it to people based on what you think their art car or costume or shade structure or whatever is worth.

But the overall social experiment, while WAY cool, will not work at BM, from what I have read. I'm new, too, but I'm also an anthropologist and have been reading these forums a lot. Also, I do find it very interesting how BM tries so hard to work without barter or commerce. It would seem to go against the nature of human cultural evolution. VERY neat.

The economy at burning man is common in human evolution, just not at beach parties.
Look up universal reciprocity.

[oneeyeddick]

There are dumbasses bounding everywhere, and some of them aren't so attractive.

[accordionMan]

I noticed someone posted a low res image of the money I designed.

Here's the link below to the high res pdf file of the NEW 2010 playa bucks. There are 4, bills per page. Print the front side, flip over the papaer and print the reverse. If you print them on a slightly textured paper they have a great monetary feel to them.

Nope.. they don't turn into moop. People save them as though they were really valuable. I guess they are in a way: GIFT TO THE BEARER A MUTUALLY SATISFYING EXPERIENCE WORTH A MILLION BUCKS




http://www.digitalartist.com/art/burningman/money.html

[bradtem]

For several years I put up an "Automated ATM Machine" which gave out two kinds of Playa money, with many different forms (new each year.)

http://pic.templetons.com/cgi-bin/imget ... G_4762.JPG

The two kinds of money were regular money where you could buy intangible things like a visit to a camp, or a drink of water, or a hug. The others were reverse money, "gifting certificates" where you had to GIVE something when you spent the note. For example, an explanation of an artwork is the note somebody inlined above. The idea was you would give the note and the explanation, and the person you gave the note to was supposed to pass the gift and the note on, explaining art to somebody else.

I don't know how many people did this rather than keep them as playa souvenirs -- after all an ATM on the Playa is supposed to make no sense -- but my best moment was when chatting with a neighbour camper and he told me he has been the firework suit guy for the Pyromid burn, and I said, "I put you on my money." The bill he was on involved giving the gift of "The spark of fire in your soul." He wept seeing it, so I gave him a whole stack to give out, passing the spark of fire to people everywhere on the playa. I always feel a bit pretentious calling myself an artist, but I really felt like one then, seeing the emotion and the connection.

[oneeyeddick]

You don't have to consider yourself and 'artist" to be appreciated for the things you do as a "burner".

[Finnegan]

I'd light my cigar with one of these, and call it "performance art".

[geekster]

Here's the link below to the high res pdf file of the NEW 2010 playa bucks

They work great in the tip jar at the cafe.

[Alexisaok]

[quote="followthroughforever"]This currency is only mach ( It does not hold any real value or serve any real purpose other than this idea ). [/quote]

We already have money like that in the default USA don't we?

[prophet]

Several years ago, I collaborated with an artist friend to manufacture some "funny munny", which I occasionally give out (when inspired) with the advice that it can be exchanged for things or experiences that are hard to place a value on.