ABSTRACT
Readymade economics are defined through a notion of the object as relationship. Choices, as well as the mechanisms through which decisions are made within the socio-political realities of advanced consumer capitalism, are tied fundamentally to the question of value and its connection to subjective judgment. Extending Marcel Duchamp’s readymade mode of production into the realm of economics allows us to propose a system of valuations that takes seriously the intrinsically subjective nature of this conflict, positing the problematics of economies as internal to individual experiences or, in a true sense, co-creations of values. In terms of the readymade as an aesthetic practice, value is presented in a state of contradiction, a ‘counderstanding’ of opposites that must be reconciled by each spectator individually. The ecology of the readymade’s exchangeability is vital to understanding how it functions and, in a true sense, its economy of judgments.
