Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain

345 Pages·2017·7.144 MB·English

by  Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, Nathan Jones, Sam Skinner (eds)

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A future-artefact of a time before the blockchain changed the h
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world. This interdisciplinary book includes artistic, theoretical B
and documentary engagements with the technology some lo Blockchain
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have described as the new internet.
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With contributions by Jaya Klara Brekke, Theodoros Chiotis, Ami in

Clarke, Simon Denny, Design Informatics Research Centre, Max
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Dovey, Mat Dryhurst, Rachel O’Dwyer, César Escudero Andaluz, d
Primavera De Filippi, Rory Gianni, Peter Gomes, Elias Haase, Juhee it
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Hahm, Max Hampshire, Kimberley ter Heerdt, Holly Herndon, Helen d

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Kaplinsky, Paul Kolling, Elli Kuruş, Nikki Loef, Rob Myers, Martín
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Nadal, Noemata (Bjørn Magnhildøen), Edward Picot, PWR Studio, R
Paul Seidler, Surfatial, Hito Steyerl, Lina Theodorou, Pablo Velasco, u
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Ben Vickers, Mark Waugh, Cecilia Wee, Martin Zeilinger.
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‘Furtherfield and Torque have brought us a collection of writings lo
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and art that cut through the mainstream blockchain hype and
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reveal the diverse creative visions that can be embedded into the M
technology. The book strikes a great balance between technical a
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explanation of blockchains, cryptocurrency and smart contracts
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and the broader politics, culture and philosophy that surrounds a
the innovations. Above all, it inspires us to believe we can still rr
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invent our own futures and grow the technologies that we need to t
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realise them.’ – Brett Scott, author of The Heretic’s Guide to Global , N
Finance: Hacking the Future of Money a
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‘This book is on a mission to make one of the most influential yet n

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unknown technologies of today intelligible for each and every one o
of us.’ – Josephine Bosma, author of Nettitudes – Let’s Talk Net Art n
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Edited by Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett,

9 780993 248757 Nathan Jones & Sam Skinner
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Contents 5
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9 Nathan Jones & Sam Skinner th
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A Quasi Proto Preface atlo
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21 Ruth Catlow rtis
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Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain Introduction Re
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DOCUMENTS ing
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41 The Design Informatics Research Centre loc
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FinBook: Literary Content as Digital Commodity ha
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51 Primavera De Filippi d
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Plantoid – The Birth of a Blockchain-Based Lifeform tio
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63 Paul Seidler, Paul Kolling & Max Hampshire
terra 0 – Can an Augmented Forest Own and Utilize Itself?
73 Martín Nadal & César Escudero Andaluz
Critical Mining: Blockchain and Bitcoin in Contemporary Art
85 Peter Gomes
The Blockchain: Change Everything Forever
91 Jaya Klara Brekke & Elias Haase
Breaking Chains and Busting Blocks: Commentary on the
Satoshi (Hippocratic) Oath for Blockchain Developers
99 Kimberley ter Heerdt & Nikki Loef
01.01.20
101 Pablo Velasco
Role Play Your Way to Budgetary Blockchain Bliss
107 Ruth Catlow & Ben Vickers
Your DAO Work Booklet
129 PWR Studio
A Shared Timeline
133 Ami Clarke
Text as Market
6 141 Sam Skinner
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n Blockchain Future States – An Interview with Simon Denny
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ntro FICTIONS
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Bl Flying Under A Neutral Flag
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Catl All That Happened
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187 Rob Myers & Lina Theodorou
Bad Shibe
199 Theodoros Chiotis
Defixio Nervorum
201 Juhee Hahm
Do it (Hand-to-Hand) Yourself // Surfing Guide
219 Edward Picot
Babel
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223 Hito Steyerl
If You Don’t Have Bread, Eat Art!: Contemporary
Art and Derivative Fascisms
233 Ben Vickers
immutability mantra
239 Rob Myers
Blockchain Poetics
251 Max Dovey
Love on the Block
261 Helen Kaplinsky
Collections Management on the Blockchain: A Return
to the Principles of the Museum
275 Mark Waugh 7
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Artists Rights in the Era of the Distributed Ledger
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287 Martin Zeilinger atlo
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Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About the : A
Blockchain* (*But Were Afraid to Ask Mel Ramsden) rtis
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297 Rachel O’Dwyer hin
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Does Digital Culture Want to be Free? How Blockchains ing
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are Transforming the Economy of Cultural Goods e
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309 Bjørn Magnhildøen, Noemata ha
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Aphantasia – Blockchain as Medium for Art In
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319 Marc Garrett tio
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Interview with Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst
327 Biographies
337 Index
342 Colophon
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Nathan Jones & Sam Skinner 9
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A Quasi Proto Preface a
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What this book is about, what is inside, and why we did it am
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The blockchain is janus-faced. On one side its traits of transparency and er : A
decentralization promise much in terms of fairness and accountability, Q
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but on the other its monetary roots born as a financial payment system, as
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albeit grounded in open-source software, mean its implementations ro
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are often stridently capitalistic. Furthermore, those involved in its P
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development seem to oscillate between radical ethical standpoints and fac
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reductionist technological determinism. The blockchain engenders
what has been called a ‘digital metalism’ 1 with the ability, like a
modern philosopher’s stone, to transmutate life through a distributed
ledger. That such a pecuniary minded technology is being touted as
a new technology to underpin a newfangled internet, compels an
exploration of both its current state and how it may be rethought.
A Performative Map
En masse, this whole collection operates as performative explainer of
sorts, with the book containing multiple entry and exit points on the
subject through which an understanding, unique to each reader, of
both present incarnations and possible futures may emerge.
Jump to Ruth Catlow’s introduction for some essentials, and fur-
ther technical elucidations within essays by Martín Nadal and César
Escudero Andaluz, Rob Myers and Rachel O’Dwyer.
The book’s contributors represent the best of a transdisciplinary and
enquiring spirit – required to understand and rethink the blockchain
– and come from a wide variety of backgrounds, to kludge, critique
and refunction their way through the terrain. We hope this inventive
character makes what can be an obscure or off-putting field, which is
principally controlled by developers and venture capitalists, a more
live and open space.
Many works perform a quasi DIY dissection and montaging of the
blockchain, acting as a subversive mapping of its individual parts,
functions, and wider infrastructure. Such approaches respond to how
this technology, if indeed it is to become a powerful tool of organizing