Black Friday

What is Black Friday?
Black Friday, Sept. 24, 1869, in U.S. history, day of financial panic. In 1869 a small group of American financial speculators, including Jay Gould and James Fisk, sought the support of federal officials of the Grant administration in a drive to corner the gold market. The attempt failed when government gold was released for sale. The drive culminated on a Friday, when thousands were ruined-the day is popularly called Black Friday. There was great indignation against the perpetrators. Several other days of financial panic have also been occasionally referred to as Black Friday.

What is Black Friday?
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. It marks the official beginning to the Christmas shopping season. The "black" in the name comes from the standard accounting practice of using red ink to denote negative values (in this case, profits) and black ink to denote positive values. Black Friday is the day when retailers traditionally get back "in the black" after operating "in the red" for the previous months.

"It is in the nature of the secret that it should be shared. In fact, the main function of the secret is to define the codes that regulate how and by whom it can be shared. The distinction between those who have the right to share it and those who don't, the rightfully initiated and illegitimate impostors is built into the logic of the secret. To know a secret therefore does not mean to be informed about its content - secrets have very little in common with information - rather, it implies that you have come to know what it means to know the secret. This is to say that you have to become initiated into the technique of acquiring the knowledge of the secret and each secret requires a particular technique of knowing it. In effect, the knowledge of secrets is by definition technical, pragmatic and performative. It is based on the practical proficiency in the coded languages used to share secrets, the many clandestine signs, gestures and innuendos by means of which you make it understood to others that you are in the know and test them whether they are, too. For if they can read the signs - and show you that they do by responding to your gestures with the appropriate responses - they thereby identify themselves as members of the community founded on the very practices of sharing secrets you currently perform. If they can't, however, they immediately disqualify themselves as uninitiated into the intimate symbolic bond created by the mutual knowledge of the secret." (Jan Verwoert)

hrsg. von Christoph Keller, mit Beiträgen von 60 Künstlern, Autoren und Designern (hauptsächlich englisch); veröffentlicht in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Piet Zwart Institut, Rotterdam.