Time After Time: The Polychronicity in Blockchain飞出个未来:区块链中的时间多重性

Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing

2022.11.12 – 2023.3.31 

Artists: César Escudero Andaluz & Martín Nadal, Simon Denny in collaboration with Guile Twardowski and Cosmographia, eeefff, GUO Cheng, Helen Knowles, Lee Tzu-tung, LIU Chuang, Nascent (Paul Seidler & Max Hampshire) in cooperation with Amy Ireland, Yuri Pattison, SHI Ruini

Curated by BI Xin

Technology Lead: CAO Daxu / Exhibition Design: CAO Daxu / Graphic Design: MAO Youran, YANG Miaoxin

Editorial and Translation: BI Xin, Jiajing Lily Sun, WANG Yajing

Special Thanks to ETHPlanet, Vairocana, Primitives Lane

 

Over the past two years, our subjective experience with time has drastically changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming an elastic existence throughout which its insufficiency has been paused, folded, extended, and regressed. In many cases, these situations have had a negative impact. However, in other ways, they have constituted positive implications. They have not only reminded us that humans are not the only agents of history but have also given us a sense of topology in time.

The global precision of time, as driven by computers and networks, accurately standardises the rhythms of modern life, with power being cashed out in temporal standardisation. In an era of "no future", how can we understand the latency, differences, and repetition of time? How can we re-consider time beyond metrics and computation? How can we perceive the traces left behind by technology in the spacing of time? Starting with block time, this exhibition attempts to search for a new timeframe based on the reference of blockchain, a data space impregnated with a topological arrow of time. Using three parallel networks of time -- Chimera (#proregression #myth #dream), Energy (#incentives #sustainability #power), and Spime (#order #circulation #consensus), this exhibition delves into the temporal, social, and political order, the construction of consensus mechanisms, the circulation of energy and emotion, and the temporal slippages in technology time, in search of the forks of time and the poetry of technology.

Chimera Time (Algorithm-Time) explores the probabilistic nature of time in the context of technology itself. The present in the blockchain is chimeric. However, since there is no central authority in the network, it is possible to find a valid block from different peers simultaneously. The two different blocks will very likely differ in their content and contain two different histories, though both are equally valid. This is when probabilistic choices occur; the future does not exist but is rather grown into the block universe, between the past and present. Energy Time (Ecology-Time) sorts out the circular chain of temporality-capital-consensus mechanism-computing power-natural resources-technology-time. It also explores how we can dialectically observe the tension and link between technological development and ecological sustainability. Spime (Social Connection-Time) merges time and space into one, exploring the trajectory of political, emotional, and community connections in the hybrid of space and time and the connections and interventions between the virtual and real worlds.

The projects featured in this exhibition explore the continued cyber time and discrete block time from the intersection of computer science, distributed technology, social relationship structures, and literature. The probabilistic nature of block time creates a new dimension for how we can ponder the possibilities of time. Discrete blocks of time give birth to perpetual forks toward innumerable futures. On the other hand, such distributed structures do not automatically create an equal distribution of wealth and power. The realisation of transparency and equality that blockchain technology advocates, as well as the vision of a posthuman economic prototype it proposes, still depend on complex participation, experimentation, and collaboration. At the same time, we still need to consider the question of sustainability since if we cannot balance technological developments and ecological consumption. There is the concern that we will eventually run out of time. The internal logic of technology itself may be singular, but artistic, creative, imaginative, and emotional elements make this logic complex and fascinating. Perhaps the artistic disruption of technology is the force required to escape linear time.

现代汽车文化中心

2022.11.12 – 2023.3.31

艺术家:塞萨尔·埃斯库德罗·安达卢兹&马丁·纳达尔,西蒙·丹尼(与吉尔·特沃多夫斯基及Cosmographia合作),eeefff,郭城,海伦·诺尔斯,李紫彤,刘窗,Nascent(保罗·赛德勒&马克思·汉普郡,与艾米·爱尔兰合作),尤里·帕蒂森,施蕊妮

策展人:毕昕

技术总监:曹达旭 / 空间设计:曹达旭 / 平面设计:毛悠然,杨妙欣

文字编辑与翻译:毕昕,孙佳婧,王雅菁

特别感谢:ETHPlanet以太行星,Vairocana,原语里弄

 

在过去的两年中,我们对时间的主观体验随着各地疫情的动态变化发生了巨大的改变。时间成为一种弹性的存在。飞速向前、永远不够的时间经历了停摆、折叠、延长甚至是倒退。这些消极的字眼从某种角度来说也具有积极与进步的意义:它不仅提醒着我们人类并不是历史唯一的代理,也让我们感受到时间中的拓扑性。

计算与机器驱动的全球时间精确地控制着现代生活的标准,权力在时间的标准化中被兑现。在“没有未来的时代”,我们将如何理解时间的延迟、差异与重复?如何思考度量与计算以外的时间?如何探寻技术在时间的空间化中留下的痕迹?展览从比特币时钟出发,在这样一个被加入了时间向度的数据空间中尝试寻找一种新的时间参照。通过超验(#自旋 #迷思 #梦)、能量(#激励机制 #可持续发展 #权力)与思派(#秩序 #循环 #共识)三种平行的时间网络,展览将重新理解秩序与共识构造的方式,能量与情感的流通与技术时间的滑移;并尝试寻找时间的分叉与技术的诗意。

超验时间(Chimera Time,算法-时间)从技术本身出发,探讨了时间的概率性。区块链中的“此在”是一种幻觉。在一个没有中央机构的分布式网络中,不同节点可能会在同一时刻验证了“未来”,虽然它们包含着不同的内容,但它们同样奏效。这时就发生了概率性的选择,未来的历史在前进与后退之间生长。能量时间(Energy Time,生态-时间)则梳理了时序价值-共识机制-算力-自然资源-技术-时间的循环链条,并从中探讨了我们如何辨证地看待技术发展与生态平衡之间的博弈与依存。思派时间(Spime,社会关系-时间)将时间与空间合二为一,探讨政治、情感、社区连结在时空中的轨迹,以及虚拟与现实之间的联系与干预。

展览中的作品从计算机科学、分布式技术、社交情感构造与文学的交叉领域探索了连续的赛博时间与离散的区块时间。区块时间的概率性为思考时间的可能性创造了新的维度;离散的区块时间生成未来的岔路。而另一方面,这种分布式的结构本身并不能自动地创造平等的财富与权力分配,这种技术所倡议的透明性、公平性,及其提出的后人类经济原型畅想之实现,仍取决于复杂的参与、协作与决策。同时,我们仍要追问可持续发展问题,如果无法在技术发展与生态消耗之间找到平衡,我们的时间恐怕也终将所剩无几。技术的内在逻辑本身也许是单一的,但艺术性、创造力、想象力与情感等因素将会让这种逻辑变得复杂、迷人。也许艺术性地颠覆技术,才是逃逸线性时间的工具。