1,725 days, 2,676 entries ... Newsticker, link list, time machine: HOLO.mg/stream logs emerging trajectories in art, science, technology, and culture––every day
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“I’m just terrified of the idea that people are giving us all these compliments because they don’t want to miss out on this NFT thing, when in reality they’re just looking at it from a business perspective.”
–
Art Blocks founder Erick Calderon (aka Snowfro), on questioning motives during the fine art world’s (gold) rush into the NFT space
“We therefore call for immediate political action from governments, the United Nations and other actors to prevent the normalisation of solar geoengineering as a climate policy option.”
– 60 policy experts in an
open letter published in
WIREs Climate Change . The group argues that the injection of sulphur particles into the atmosphere—the most hotly debated plan to cool Earth—could do more harm than good, as deployment “cannot be governed globally in a fair, inclusive and effective manner.”
What comes after platform capitalism? An assemblage called ‘hyperstructures,’ according to Jacob Horne. In an essay published on his website, the co-founder of the NFT marketplace aggregator Zora outlines the frameworks he sees emerging around crypto protocols. Inspired by the utopian architecture of Paolo Soleri , Horne argues the permissionless nature of hyperstructures generates low-friction exchange, yielding more equitable outcomes for participants (versus web 2.0 platforms where the user is the product ). Is this the frothy rhetoric we’ll hear as money flows into web3? Yes, but Zora’s manifesto claim that “platforms hold our audiences and content hostage” is not wrong.
“One and Zero Makes Two,” a solo show by Cem Sonel, opens at Anna Laudel Istanbul. Surveying the breadth of the Turkish artist’s practice, it juxtaposes whimsical street art with austere cellular automata . Produced under the moniker Code of Conquer , the latter body of work features dense red and green dot arrays splashed across MDF and LED displays (image), rejecting the notion that “absence refers to a deficiency in existence,” and breathing life into binary logic.
“Conceptually, working with NFTs has inspired me to continue evolving my hypothesis that poetry is a technology, a durable, adaptive data storage system for preserving humanity’s most valuable information—poetry as the original blockchain.”
– Poet, artist, and AI researcher
Sasha Stiles , on embracing Web3 with her own work and the crypto poetry gallery
theVERSEverse she co-founded with Ana Maria Caballero and Kalen Iwamoto in late 2021
“These dichotomies abound: are you a wage slave or an entrepreneur? In the casino economy of NFTs and crypto, are you a high roller or are you a mark? In the Web3 space, are you a grifter or a useful idiot?”
“I was thinking okay, so what if green screens are actually spaces where there are possibilities embedded in them; but also, warnings about what it means for groups of people to do things in tandem.”
DOSSIER :
HOLO 3 guest editor
Nora N. Khan reveals the forth and final chapter of the forthcoming print edition. “AI ethicists and activists frequently argue that once the black boxes of AI are opened, users will have more agency,” notes Khan. “But what if we don’t understand the explanation?” Contributors
Ingrid Burrington ,
Ryan Kuo , Sera Schwarz, and
Jenna Sutela are tasked to answer.
“An entire major museum dedicated to disability-related work from 41 international artists and collaboratives is a big deal; as far as I know, on this scale it’s unprecedented.”
– Writer
Kenny Fries , on “
Crip Time ,” a Museum für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt) exhibition presenting the lived experience of disability. Despite Fries’ acknowledgement that it’s precedent-setting, he concludes the show falls short, likening it to “an anesthetized hospital” that “fails to understand what crip time actually is.”
“We are pessimistic about the fate of most of the Earth’s biodiversity, much of which is going to vanish without us ever knowing of its existence. Denying the crisis … is an abrogation of moral responsibility.”
“Unruly Archives,” an exhibition surfacing traces of “the global footprint of warfare and organized violence,” opens at The Blackwood in Mississauga, Canada. Curated by Amin Alsaden , conflict-focused works by Emily Jacir , Walid Raad , and Zineb Sedira are included. Iraqi artist Ali Eyal’s contribution 6×9 doesn’t fit everything (2021, image), for example, chronicles the heartbreak and frustration he felt when ridiculed by U.S. soldiers, after his father’s car was incinerated.
“The fact that, after 11 years, Vorspiel is still here and now numbers an incredible 65+ venues, is a testimony to the staying power of this non-institution of Berlin’s diverse and transdisciplinary culture scene.”
– transmediale’s former artistic director
Kristoffer Gansing , revisiting the origins of the community-based event series that leads up to transmediale and CTM Festival every year
Tokyo’s SAI gallery dedicates a new solo show—his largest yet—to the cyberpunk creations of Ikeuchi Hiroto , showcasing mechanical masks, VR headsets, wearable exoskeletons (made in collaboration with Skeletonics ), and a futuristic vehicle (image). Ikeuchi, who rose to fame with robotic augmentations in the fashion world, combines ready-made plastic models with industrial parts, imparting decontextualised objects with new meaning through amalgamation.
“Apocalypse is a great way to flatten politics and power dynamics in the name of an overarching story of ‘humanity.’ It’s never how disaster unfolds in real life, where the already suffering face disproportionate harm and capitalists find some angle through which to profit.”
– Writer
Ingrid Burrington , revisiting the “long political history of asteroid movies” in the wake of Adam McKay’s
Don’t Look Up (which Burrington describes as “laser-focused on the systemic fuckups and abuses of power manipulating the planetary disaster”)
In celebration of the 5th anniversary of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie , a Studio Drift survey opens at the local MK&G museum. “Moments of Connection” is the Dutch art and architecture duo’s most expansive exhibition in Germany to date and includes Drift classics such as Fragile Future III (2005, image), Shylight (2006), and In 20 Steps (2015). A new commission, Breaking Waves , is set to premiere in April, illuminating the facade of the iconic opera house with a drone choreography.
“Starting today we are reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals. And as we conduct our review, we will pause the ability to donate cryptocurrency.”
– The
Mozilla Foundation , after a recent plea for cryptocurrency donations caused social media backlash. The org’s overt pandering to ‘HODLers’ of Bitcoin and Ethereum, both energy-intensive
proof-of-work (PoW) chains, drew harsh criticism from prominent voices in the open source community, including Mozilla co-founder
Jamie Zawinski and Gecko engine designer
Peter Linss .
In response to Lionel Dricot ’s call for a “computer built to last 50 years ,” Swedish programmer Carl Svensson argues that such a “ForeverComputer” already exists: the Commodore Amiga 1200 (image), a portable 32bit platform launched in 1992, meets Dricot’s criteria of being “sustainable, decentralized, offline-first and durable,” while offering many modern features and a massive software library. Bonus: “No notifications, no distractions, no surveillance.”
“He was an idealist. Someone who had a very clear idea about how the world should be, and what he could do to bring it to that point. And yet, he was ill-equipped to deal with how the world actually was.”
–
The Idealist (2016) author Justin Peters, on the legacy of
Aaron Swartz . The wunderkind information activist and “conscience of the internet” took his life eight years ago, after U.S. prosecutors pursued incarceration as punishment for
downloading 4.8 million academic journal articles.
“Images of Resistance from Elsewhere,” an e-flux Video & Film screening program launches. Exploring the mediation of political struggle, it features films by The Otolith Group , Jocelyne Saab , b.h. Yael , and Mohanad Yaqubi that show conflict “from the point of view of the engaged observer.” Notably, it includes Harun Farocki ’s War at a Distance (2003, image), which connects post-Gulf War military trends (missile cams, CGI, etc.) with industry and ideology. The online program runs through Jan 18.
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