crypto_manifold加密_流形

Chronus Art Center 

2020.6.27 - 2020.10.25

Artists:  ! Mediengruppe Bitnik, CHEN Baoyang, Simon Denny, Grayson Earle, Sarah Friend, Marija Bozinovska Jones, Paul Kolling &  Max Hampshire & Paul Seidler, Matthias Tarasiewicz, Lina Theodorou & Rob Myers

Curator: Milia Xin BI & Chloe Jiamin CAO

Special thanks to ETHPlanet

 

In 1993, The New Yorker published Peter Steiner’s cartoon “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”, poking fun at online anonymity that hides the user’s identity, or even species, behind a screen. In the past forty years, with the global expansion of various kinds of topological P2P (point-to-point) network structures, many Internet activists have advocated for decentralized autonomous sovereignty. Yet, the inherent lack of virtual trust continues to drive the growth of third-party institutions and “super platforms” that provide online verification and management services. These institutions collect user data, whether in the name of ensuring those users’ rights or merely for profit. Encroaching governmental intervention and digital capitalism have tarnished the utopian aspirations many initially held for the Internet’s possibilities. Furthermore, after Wall Street triggered the 2008 global financial crisis, establishing bonds of trust between the public and financial institutions necessitated renewed consideration.

During the global financial crisis, the pseudonymous entity Satoshi Nakamoto outlined a new protocol for a peer-to-peer electronic cash system through the development of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. In the form of distributed computations, this protocol establishes a set of rules, such as proof-of-work (POW), value as incentives, distributed power and cryptographic security. These rules aim to secure the integrity of the data exchange among billions of devices without going through a trusted third party. On a blockchain, all transactions and interactions among actors are recorded and stored in an immutable, distributed ledger. The algorithm and self-executing smart contracts replace the intermediaries. The code-in-action infrastructure provides the distributed trust system. Blockchain technology undoubtedly stimulates the imagination --- it makes us wonder, apart from the Internet of Information, are we able to realise an Internet of Value? Would this form of the Internet be capable of safely storing, managing, exchanging and moving assets, personal identities, artistic creations, and even votes? Could opportunities and prosperity flow directly from the source, bypassing traditional hierarchical systems of wealth creation and distribution?

Crypto_Manifold presents artists’ multifaceted exploration and affective consideration of the panoptic application of blockchain technology. The nine featured projects respectively place technological topics, such as DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation), bitcoin and tokens, smart contracts, and crypto algorithms, into dialogues with wider social and cultural context. While presenting manifold perspectives, the exhibition also constructs a kind of topological manifold space. This technology, pregnant with a vision of humanity’s rational shared glory, proposes a practical way to realise an autonomous future and stands as a prototype of a post-human economic unit. Yet, we remain sceptical of this potential. Bitcoin mining farms expend tremendous natural resources, and the debate is polarized between Anarcho-capitalism and avid technocrats. Under such circumstances, could this decentralised infrastructure fix the problems of the current financial system, like the wealth disparity between the rich and the poor, financial capital sovereignty and monopolisation, and commodification of human relationships and sensory experience? Or will blockchain technology merely extend such corruption, a digital consensus coopted by capital?

新时线媒体艺术中心

2020.6.27 - 2020.10.25

 

艺术家:!比特族媒体小组、陈抱阳、西蒙·丹尼、格雷森·厄尔、萨拉·福莱、玛瑞亚·博兹诺夫斯卡·琼斯、保罗·库灵& 马克斯·汉普郡&保罗·塞德勒、马蒂亚·塔拉西维奇、莉娜·泽奥多洛 & 罗伯·迈尔斯 

策展人:毕昕 & 曹佳敏

 

特别感谢:ETHPlanet 以太行星

 

1993年的《纽约客》上刊登了彼得·施泰纳(Peter Steiner)的漫画:“在互联网上,没有人知道你是一条狗(On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog)”,调侃了互联网匿名性对屏幕之后的用户身份(甚至物种)的隐身。在过去的四十年中,伴随着不同类型的点对点拓扑网络结构崛起,许多互联网活跃者曾试图争取去中心化的网络自治主权(sovereignty)。但是由于“虚拟信任(virtual trust)”关系的天然缺失,催生了作为验证与管理职责的第三方机构与超级平台。它们或以用户的权益之名、或出于商业目的索取用户数据。互联网所燃起的乌托邦之光在政治治理与数字资本市场逐步强势的干预下渐渐暗淡。2008年自华尔街而起的全球金融危机更是令大众不得不重新思考与银行和机构之间的信任关系应如何建立。

在这场全球金融灾难中,中本聪(Satoshi Nakamoto)发布了比特币,即一种点对点的现金系统及其基础协议。这个协议以分布式计算技术设定了工作量证明、以价值作为激励、分布式电力分配、信任源内化等一系列规则,使数十亿设备在脱离第三方中介的情况下仍旧能够安全地交换信息。在区块链上,主体(actor)间的每一笔交易、每一次互动,都会被记录在一个不可篡改的分布式账本上。由代码构成的智能合约(smart contract)取代了第三方中介的角色,可编程的基础设施提供了去中心化的信任体系。这无疑释放了世界的想象力,除了作为信息的网络,我们是否可以拥有一个价值的网络(Internet of Value)?我们的金钱、身份、艺术创作、投票是否可以在这个新网络中被安全地储存、管理、交易和移动?我们是否可以从源头获得机会与繁荣,而不是等待财富被创造出来之后根据传统的阶级构架进行分配?

展览“加密_流形” 呈现了艺术家对于区块链技术全景化(panoptic)应用的多维度探索与感性思考。其中所展示的9组作品分别将分布式自治组织(DAO, decentralised autonomous organisation)、比特币与代币、智能合约、加密算法等技术议题放置于文化、社会语境中讨论。展览呈现多样性(manifold)的同时,也似构成了一个拓扑学结构的流形(manifold)空间。这项寄托着“理性共荣”美好愿景的技术提出了自治化未来的实现方式,以及作为后人类经济单位的原型。同时,我们依然存疑于它的许诺。当比特币农场运作所消耗的大量自然资源、无政府资本主义与技术官僚(technocrats)两极化等议题出现时,这一去中心化的基础建设是否能够解决货币金融体系下所存在的贫富差距、金融资本统治与垄断、人际关系与感官体验资产化/商品化等问题;或者,它只是再一次承袭了资本主义体系的陋习,一个被资本裹挟的“数字共识”?