Last night my wife Jenn and I had dinner with complete strangers in our home.
The dinner was organized with the help of Peers. Late in the summer of 2013, Peers emerged to promote the share economy. This “new” economy seeks to explore the bounds beyond zero sum and suggests that win-win can be achieved in many of life’s pursuits, particularly when information is shared and is readily accessible. I think the share economy can be applied with amazing success to art, but some context would be helpful for understanding how.
From my own experience:
In the last 18 months the spare bedroom in our home has provided a night’s rest or a month-long home for over 70 guests. Jenn and I have hosted people from across the globe traveling to Baltimore for everything from an O’s game and weddings to workshops on the latest surgical procedures and health food conferences. In the process, AirBnb, a website market-place of private bedrooms, apartments, beds and spare sofa space has generated substantial revenue for us. Just as important, AirBnb has introduced us to a spectrum of new friends.
AirBnb claims to be a part of the share economy. The value of my home is “shared” through a novel website that allows me to post information about my spare bedroom. This system may just be a reinvention of economics 101 but with the help of the internet. We have a product (supply), our bedroom. You have a desire (demand) for a bedroom. We have a dollar amount (price) for which we are willing to let a complete stranger stay in our bedroom. You have a dollar amount (price) you are willing to pay to use a bedroom in this location in a complete stranger’s house. We believe our price point is sufficient to cover our time to keep our house tidy, prepare the room for your stay and make arrangements for your arrival. You feel that the price point is fair and MUCH less than what you would pay to stay in the hotel three blocks away. We both come away feeling like winners, and we have experienced how economics “should” work. Besides the ease with which information can be shared with the internet, what is difference between the share economy and the “regular” economy?
Last night’s dinner is a big part of what is different. The share economy is about reaping value beyond dollars and cents. It is about seeing the value in human relationships, new perspectives, and new ideas. It is about experience. Hence Peers’ notion of share a meal, share an idea; don’t just satiate yourself. The share economy is about sharing life as opposed to just doing life.
Our home is not a commodity to us. It is not something we are selling or leasing and expecting just a transaction to be created. Certainly our house is an object that serves a function, but it is more than that. It is an intimate personal space that provides respite and joy for us. In the share economy we have the opportunity to provide to others those same values (intimacy, peace and enjoyment), but only if we see the relationship as more than a transaction. In other words, the party on the other side is not just dollars and cents, or even worse our nemesis to be screwed for our advantage. They are a human being. They are a guest. They are potential friends. To my understanding, AirBnb is really only for people who understand it as such.
I think art has amazing potential in the share economy. Art is an object with financial value, but as I have stated in many places in this blog, art is much more. Art is an experience. It is therefore ripe with opportunity to be shared. But what might that look like?
Stay tuned for the next installment…
