A Stock Market in Life

A networked performance turning real-world presence into tradable assets across four cities.

A Stock Market in Life was a two-week experimental exchange and live event that turned physical attendance into a commodity. Taking place simultaneously in Oklahoma City, Boston, Munich, and Istanbul, the project measured real-time presence at each venue using entrance-mounted sensors that count how many people were in each space at any given moment. This data was continuously streamed to a central server powering a live stock market, where it determined the fair value of each location.

Each venue was issued 100 shares, with prices fluctuating in real time based on both physical attendance and market speculation. Participants traded using a custom virtual currency, effectively turning the project into a futures market—where value was driven by predictions of how crowded each location would be at the event’s peak.

The market launched on November 20, 2006, and culminated in simultaneous events on November 31 across four venues:

• Oklahoma City: IAO Gallery
• Munich: Muffathalle Cafe
• Boston: Art Interactive
• Istanbul: Karaoke Club

The project ran on Pinkie and Open I/O, a networked electronics system and data protocol enabling real-time sensing and data transmission. It was supported by Turbulence and Upgrade! International, and created as part of the Upgrade! A DAY IN THE LIFE happening, conceived by Horst Konietzny and Tamiko Thiel.

Collaborators included Dara Kilicoğlu, Orkan Telhan, Stephan Gschwendtner, Jeff Stokes, Tamiko Thiel, and Jo-Anne Green. Special thanks to Amber Frid-Jimenez and Can Basyigit.

This work laid the conceptual and technical groundwork for the later project Meta-Markets, a platform for trading social media profiles.