Play the Game (active on local Garlic Wifi Only)

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Garlic Trust is a networked Garlic trading game ,and a collaboration with artist Shu Lea Cheang for "Garlic=RichAir," installed at the New Museum as part of 'The Art Happens Here: Net Art's Archival Poetics' presented by Rhizome.
Garlic Trust is modeled off of the Trust Game, developed by economists in 1995 to study the role of trust in economic relationships. Garlic was planted in an upstate NY farm, then harvested. Over 2000 players engaged online in a game of cheating, collusion, and cooperation to trade and exchange virtual garlic – eventually, culminating in an in-person exchange of hundreds of freshly harvested garlic bulbs on the boardwalk of Rockaway Beach. Ultimately, the game is about trust, reciprocity, and cooperation, because the most prosperous outcome for the collective is to trust one another. In 2020, the garlic harvest was donated to South Brooklyn Mutual Aid.

On July 28, 2019, the performance aspect of Garlic=Rich Air was restaged in Rockaway Beach, NY. Participants were invited to trade in virtual garlic for organic bulbs grown at CycleX in Andes, NY—a non-profit founded by Cheang with John Woo and Jennifer Fong that functions as both a farm and a medialab.