{"id":736,"date":"2005-07-26T09:07:52","date_gmt":"2005-07-26T16:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/07\/on_the_fungibility_of_experien\/"},"modified":"2005-07-26T09:07:52","modified_gmt":"2005-07-26T16:07:52","slug":"on_the_fungibility_of_experien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/on_the_fungibility_of_experien.php","title":{"rendered":"On the fungibility of experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve had some interesting comments<\/a> and e-mail feedback on my rant about distributed ticketing<\/a>. Some had attempted some version of the idea before, but had been flummoxed by distrust or neglect by the community’s arts organizations, or inelegance of the technology available.<\/p>\n

I continue to think there’s a way to hack the system to make this idea workable…to allow a broader and more distributed group of players access and authority to sell tickets to cultural events. With your help, I hope to continue to think it through, and find relevant examples…even of efforts labeled as ‘failures.’<\/p>\n

Among the comments was a thoughtful post by Frank Chiachiere from an arts collective in Seattle<\/a>, who suggested one snag with my airline analogy:<\/p>\n


\nAirlines are a hard analogy, too, because the services are interchangable: most people don’t care which airline they get booked on, as long as it gets them there cheaply. Not true of cultural events. You’d want your ”cultural concierge” to have a high degree of knowledge of each event, to help guide people to the right one. That’s harder than it is in the travel industry.
\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I completely agree about the difference between air travel and cultural experience, and about the need for responsive and even omniscient agents to suggest possible ticket purchases for each patron. In fact, that’s the kind of broad view that a distributed ticket system would allow (”You know, it sounds like our current theater work isn’t<\/i> what you’re looking for, but there’s an experimental jazz combo playing at the King Club that would knock you out…can I book that<\/i> for you?”).<\/p>\n

But Frank’s comment also raises an interesting question: how interchangable are the services of cultural organizations? In other words, when we buy a ticket to a cultural event, are we paying for the means of travel, or for the place it takes us (the meaning, the connection, the new perspective, the escape, etc.)?<\/p>\n

Certainly, the two are closely interconnected, but they’re not the same. If I’m buying a specific show, there’s only one place in town I can go. If I’m buying meaning, connection, discovery, or escape, I could travel any number of routes to get there.<\/p>\n

The core economic term here is ”fungibility,” which means ”the degree to which all instances of a given commodity are considered interchangeable” (defined here<\/a>). Specific grades of coal are fungible, since I don’t care which<\/i> chunk of coal I get, as long as it’s of similar quality. Generic white rice is fungible. Cash is fungible. Is it possible that the core feeling of connection we get from a personally engaging cultural experience is somewhat fungible, as well?<\/p>\n

I’m not suggesting that the arts<\/i> are fungible, or that they are a commodity (many would smack me upside the head for saying such a thing). I’m just wondering if there is a common destination that meaningful experience takes us — regardless of discipline, professional or amateur, nonprofit or commercial, formal or informal. In short, I’m wondering if meaningful connections through culture aren’t a bit more fungible than we’d like to admit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve had some interesting comments and e-mail feedback on my rant about distributed ticketing. Some had attempted some version of the idea before, but had been flummoxed by distrust or neglect by the community’s arts organizations, or inelegance of the technology available. I continue to think there’s a way to hack the system to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}