How to learn more about the constraints of the barter economic system by playing pinball. This is what Dual Coïncidence offers, a very complex artistic installation that is played by five.
It is a playable work of art that explains the workings of the barter economy. The Dual Coincidence installation was designed by the New York artist Andy Cavatorta. This artistic ensemble was built for the Bank of Mexico Museum in Mexico, that is, the country’s Central Bank Museum. The device consists of an assembly of five pinball machines positioned in a star. And five is precisely the number of players needed to play this giant pinball game, because the different machines communicate with each other. In the center is a hub. This is what the artist calls the “exchange matrix”. It consists of six rotating carousels that move a pinball ball from one playing field to another. But this set isn’t just a five-player pinball game. The artist also conveys a message.
The main idea of Dual Coincidence is to illustrate through this game, the principle of “the double coincidence of needs”. An economic concept specific to the barter system. It states that two parties can only trade if each desires what the other can offer. A constraint that the currency precisely eliminates. In this game, the five participants therefore represent the members of a small community practicing barter. One makes shoes, another grows corn, another player drives a transport truck, and so on. Each flipper allows them to accumulate marbles that represent the goods or services they produce. But, to continue their game, they must regularly exchange their goods for those of other players.
This video shows how a game of Dual Coincidence works. Beyond the machinery of pinball machines, players can experience the economic concept of the double coincidence of needs specific to barter. © Andy Cavatorta
An extremely complex pinball game
Their playing field warns them that they must make this exchange in order to continue playing. If accepted, the exchange takes place via the central hub. But it’s not that simple, because other players may not have the same needs at the same time. For example, if you are growing corn, at some point you will need new shoes. When the machine asks for it, you have to exchange part of the corn for a pair of shoes. But this reciprocal need does not necessarily arrive at the same time at the shoe manufacturer. It is for this reason that while just playing pinball, the participants have to chat to negotiate what they need and have the other player stop producing to barter.
As for the installation itself, which visually only looks like an assembly of pinball machines, is an extremely complex system. Under the hood, there are 17 computers running 12,000 lines of code, six servomotors, 10 sensors, 12 rotary encoders, 35 inductive sensors, 75 switches, 115 actuators and hundreds of diodes for lighting. The assembly of the parts of this arsenal was not done by barter, but precisely with a lot of money, since the whole thing cost around 300,000 dollars.
