Wallet Trading

\One odd little bit of phenomena that popped up this summer was the practice of getting together with people and trading all the odd little ephemera that collected in their wallets and purses against stuff that you yourself had collected in your wallet.

There's a real intimacy inherent in this kind of exchange, since what makes something an attractive thing to trade for isn't anything intrinsic to the object itself, but the emotional history that precedes the object. In turn, you have to ante up with the other little momentos of the bits-and-pieces of your life.

In a way, I guess one of the great joys of it was the inherent voyeurism of hearing all the odd stories that surround the little things. In Washington D.C., I traded with Cat (and this is already a kind of meta-exchange, since she's the friend of a friend) to get the business card of a hairdresser that she used once in Chicago and of a bookstore that she went to with her friends early in the year. She has something of mine now, but I forget what it is.

The interesting thing is, as these pieces pass along further and further from the original interaction in purely spatial terms, they also carry the little (or huge) experience associated with it. I'll keep telling everyone about that weekend we were in D.C., and Cat might show whatever I traded to her, and explain the story behind that too.

I've always thought it would be nice if people traded their old love letters to each other, and then if they passed from person to person.

I'm currently working on a project to do a huge international game of wallet trading, with Sam over in England, and Clancy over in New York. If you're interested, let me know.