The fourth of the Değiş Tokuş Talks was by independent researcher Elif Demirkaya. The title of her talk, which took place on Friday evening of July 9, 2021, was ‘Gift Circulation, Seed Capital, and Culture of Sharing'. (The talk is in Turkish)

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Demirkaya started her speech by unpacking topics such as the transformation of carrier materials with technological developments such as the printing press and the camera, Benjamin's argument that the work of art has lost its uniqueness, and the change in formats of consumption and production. She continued by linking the disappearance of carrier materials and the emergence of sharing networks (such as Napster, Torrent, DC++) among peers, especially in the music industry, through the lens of the following question: "How can we look at the act of giving if it is not out of the hands of the giver?" Demirkaya also touched upon issues such as the emergence of possibilities that change the passive position of the listener with examples from the field of music, the concept of sampling, the questioning of authorship, the circulating of artworks as gifts with the post-production method, and DJ culture. She concluded her speech by explaining Tarde's concept of seed capital, the proliferation of ideas as shared, the proliferation/dissemination without loss, the impossibility of intellectual property, and the joint production of thought.

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About Elif Demirkaya:

Demirkaya received her bachelor’s degree from Istanbul Bilgi University Department of Sociology. She received her master's degree from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Department of Sociology, with her thesis titled "Contemporary Sharing Culture and The Gift". She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the same university. Her research focuses on biopolitics, necropolitics, post-human studies, affect theory and singularity.