The value of life: Blockchain-art by Kevin Abosch, and Ai Weiwei

Kevin Abosch is still caught in the spell of the Blockchain. With his project I AM A COIN he had already used the concept of Tokenization, in order to illuminate the social valuation of a work of art and the individual. With the Chinese exile artist Ai Weiwei Abosch has now found a prominent brother in the spirit, to ask again the questions about the nature of identity and the value of a life in the age of digitalisation, especially in the light of the global refugee crisis. For her project, "PRICELESS", two artists from the Ethereum-a Blockchain – use the new ERC-20-Token included.

One of the core functions of money unit of account. Only by the possibility of money in smaller denominations, it is possible that things of a monetary value to it. But the notion of Worthiness overstretched the concept of money at the latest when it comes to life itself. How much is a human life worth? How is it justified that on the one hand, the stock markets in the world recorded record-breaking runs, while on the other hand, people will be dismissed, expelled from their homeland, of borders, drown in the Mediterranean?

On the run

Abosch these questions to. The habit of a society, people assign a value, could have devastating consequences:

"From the Moment we come into this world, there are those who try us value. They will say: 'The Boy is over there, full of potential', or: 'The girl is worthless.' In fact, history shows that entire communities and ethnic groups have been so devalued strongly, that it has even paved the way to genocide.“

As a descendant of Auschwitz-inmates Abosch has great empathy for people who have to flee from violence and oppression. Insbesonderere the disastrous situation of the Rohingya in Myanmar has moved him to the collaboration with Ai Weiwei. This has taken most recently in its 2017 released documentary film, "Human Flow" of the refugee issue in 23 countries. On the run to be Ai know this state from my own experience.

"Because my father, Ai Qing, at that time the most famous Poet of China was established, the government made an example out of him. In 1958, my family was evicted from our house in Beijing and in the most remote area of the country, exiled – we had no idea that this was the beginning of a very long, dark journey that would last two decades,“

he gave in February to the Guardian.

However, in later years, the artist had to contend with repression by the Chinese state. Which is why he has made after a long Wait on an exit permit, 2015 Berlin to his home of choice.

What is "priceless"?

may be perfidious, the idea is also to provide a human life with a price tag – Abosch has been observed that for some of the speech of the Divine of a life in the first line relates to the own and of the next of kin:

"While I consider each human life as priceless, it seems that some people can only relate to their own lives or the lives of their friends and families in this way,"

it is the Homepage of the PRICELESS project. Abosch tried together with the Ai people, who think in materialistic categories, to raise awareness of the issue of "Divine".

"We will say, an old artifact is priceless but not as priceless as human life, is it? The society has a complicated relationship to what is priceless.“

according to the Motto "Tokenize ALL the things", Ai and Abosch determined to quanitifizieren supposedly priceless by means of tokenization and thus to make it commercially available.

For sale: priceless moments

to this purpose, programmed PRICELESS Token (PRCLS) allows the art to interested buyers to take part in private moments of Ai and Abosch, in the truest sense of "proportion". These "priceless moments" experiences, such as "a carefree walk through the schönhauser Allee" or the common tea drinking. These fleeting moments may seem mundane, for Ai WeiWei and Abosch, however, the basic building blocks of the human Condition. Therefore, every Moment in life is priceless.

Each of these priceless moments is represented by an address on the Ethereum block Chain. Because each of these addresses a small amount of PRCLS Token. The Clou: There are only two PRCLS were created Token. In addition, one of the two tokens should not, at any time for sale.

"Only two ERC-20 tokens have been created for the project, but since you are set on 18 decimals divisible, there could be these virtual works of art potentially to billions of people [...] One of the two PRICELESS Token is no price available. The remaining tokens will be divided in a Million pieces and individual collectors and institutions.“

The question of value determination,

This a Million fragments can in turn be divided up to a Quint illionstel PRCLS. The artists keep the size and number for a scale of the determination value, the is. So was it also in the world of art is not uncommon that large plants achieve a higher price than smaller ones. Consequently, a larger piece of PRICELESS, should have a higher value. So far, So the market is economically understandable. But how it behaves with the value determination if one of the two tokens is completely unavailable? How to determine the value of the other, is theoretically accessible to the whole world?

to be able To give an answer, each place, first a more fundamental question: How and why we measure things? to bring

people to this point of self-reflection, is the stated goal PRICELESS.