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Welcome to the New Time Machines Working Group! We’re an agency that designs and develops memory protocols for aspiring time travelers. For ages, the arts of memory were rigorously developed and passed down from generation to generation. But in this era of digitally-mediated memory, the protocols that augment our natural capacity to remember have fallen by the wayside. The New Time Machine Working Group’s memory kit provides exercises, products, and practices that allow time travelers to revisit people and places no longer present. Memory protocols are not just about storage and recitation. They matter because they help us orient in the seas of our stories—they help us curate the collective lore that glues communities together. Ranging from low-tech objects to never-before-seen devices, our new time machines bring ancient memory protocols to modern memory artists., https://www.librarystack.org/new-time-machines/?ref=unknown

For most people publishing creative work online, there is a growing sense of anxiety. While we have more online tools than ever to help operationalize and monetize creative businesses, the available options often feel mismatched with how we naturally create. We want work to be financially valued without compromising our integrity. We want to make meaningful work that we’re proud of, not please an algorithm. We want to share work in ways that feel right to us, not compete for attention on a feed. We want to feel seen without our creativity and identities being exploited. The broad industry of sharing our creativity online has been generally defined as “the creator economy,” referring to the platforms, services and tools that enable the creation, distribution and monetization of content online. In this publication, we explore directions for an alternative creative ecosystem — one that looks and functions differently. We challenge the assumptions of the current model and suggest some of the cultural and technological shifts that can get us closer towards new solutions…, https://www.librarystack.org/after-the-creator-economy/?ref=unknown

For most people publishing creative work online, there is a growing sense of anxiety. While we have more online tools than ever to help operationalize and monetize creative businesses, the available options often feel mismatched with how we naturally create. We want work to be financially valued without compromising our integrity. We want to make meaningful work that we’re proud of, not please an algorithm. We want to share work in ways that feel right to us, not compete for attention on a feed. We want to feel seen without our creativity and identities being exploited. The broad industry of sharing our creativity online has been generally defined as “the creator economy,” referring to the platforms, services and tools that enable the creation, distribution and monetization of content online. In this publication, we explore directions for an alternative creative ecosystem — one that looks and functions differently. We challenge the assumptions of the current model and suggest some of the cultural and technological shifts that can get us closer towards new solutions…, https://www.librarystack.org/after-the-creator-economy/?ref=unknown

Over the summer of 2023, a group of 33 researchers participated in the inaugural Summer of Protocols program, convened by the Ethereum Foundation. They were tasked with exploring protocols, broadly construed, from various angles and across a range of different domains. The program kicked off with a pilot study titled The Unreasonable Sufficiency of Protocols: an initial exploratory survey of the major themes in the study of protocols that seemed particularly salient from the perspective of the Ethereum project. Some of these concerns, while seemingly narrow—such as the prospect of “ossification” of Ethereum— nevertheless turned out to have deep philosophical implications and relevance to protocols more broadly. The researchers, with backgrounds spanning architecture, law, game design, technology, media, art, workplace safety, and more, each attempted to tackle an open question around protocols. Their findings comprise a variety of textual and non-textual artifacts (including art works, game designs, and software), organized around a set of research themes: built environments, danger and safety, dense hypermedia, technical standards, web content addressability, authorship, swarms, protocol death, and (artificial) memory. The program output will be published over the next 6 to 8 months in the form of a Protocol Kit which will be available both as free and open-access materials online and as a print subscription. This summary document, which we are calling a retrospectus, is meant to convey an overall sense of the research output…, https://www.librarystack.org/2023-retrospectus/?ref=unknown

“Web3” is now part of our collective imaginaries, even if the specifics of what the buzzword entails remain murky and inaccessible to many. Originally coined in 2014 by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, to describe “a decentralised internet ecosystem based on blockchain,” the term took off after the NFT boom of 2021, catalysed by the embrace of the crypto ecosystem by the likes of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Like other social technologies, the swirl of narrative, attention and capital around web3 are as much part of its utility as the tools themselves. Mainstream discourses around “the web3 space”—and the blockchains, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, decentralised web (dweb) frameworks that make it up—have been shaped by a cacophony of criticism, partiality and hype, played out over the past five years on Twitter and Discord. Future Art Ecosystems 3: Art x Decentralised Tech (FAE3) attempts to take a long(er) view on the impact of decentralised technologies and imaginaries on the structures and processes that underpin the development of 21st-century cultural infrastructure, specifically art and advanced technologies (AxAT). The downward slope of the hype cycle towards another “crypto winter”—as well as a market correction in the wider tech industry—is a good time to take a sober view of the lessons, potentials and affordances that have been generated over these years of energetic innovation and speculative boom and bust…, https://www.librarystack.org/art-x-decentralised-tech/?ref=unknown

“Web3” is now part of our collective imaginaries, even if the specifics of what the buzzword entails remain murky and inaccessible to many. Originally coined in 2014 by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, to describe “a decentralised internet ecosystem based on blockchain,” the term took off after the NFT boom of 2021, catalysed by the embrace of the crypto ecosystem by the likes of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Like other social technologies, the swirl of narrative, attention and capital around web3 are as much part of its utility as the tools themselves. Mainstream discourses around “the web3 space”—and the blockchains, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, decentralised web (dweb) frameworks that make it up—have been shaped by a cacophony of criticism, partiality and hype, played out over the past five years on Twitter and Discord. Future Art Ecosystems 3: Art x Decentralised Tech (FAE3) attempts to take a long(er) view on the impact of decentralised technologies and imaginaries on the structures and processes that underpin the development of 21st-century cultural infrastructure, specifically art and advanced technologies (AxAT). The downward slope of the hype cycle towards another “crypto winter”—as well as a market correction in the wider tech industry—is a good time to take a sober view of the lessons, potentials and affordances that have been generated over these years of energetic innovation and speculative boom and bust…, https://www.librarystack.org/art-x-decentralised-tech/?ref=unknown

Thanks to their open source and permissionless nature, crypto protocols have rekindled a popular conversation about public goods. Indeed, the transparency and accessibility of blockchains has already re-imagined models of free exchange and association. Nevertheless, while crypto protocols operate as open networks, do they truly enact a public if solely comprised of private capital? Questions of scope, access, and ownership complicate our understanding of what is public on the internet. Public goods also rely on shared moral conditions, as any “good” is necessarily defined in relation to the value system of a given community. With these considerations, we advocate for ..., https://www.librarystack.org/positive-sum-worlds/?ref=unknown

Temporal Secessionism started two years ago as a self-initiated project by Nascent. Who or what is Nascent, anyway? We describe Nascent as: … an EXIT TECH production studio investigating alternative infrastructures. Delving into the nature‘ of games, economics, and consensus systems, we create theory-based computational experiments and tools to prototype technological secessionism and spark discussion about the base layers of current stacks. Originally founded as a laboratory for infrastructural and economic experiments, Nascent developed a stronger theoretical focus for the last two years. In doing so we have acknowledged text production as a part of our artistic research, with publications becoming an inevitable outcome. The entanglement of capitalist modes of production, time measurements, and consensus systems is for us an ongoing research field, beginning with the question of how to formulate a generative and affective position towards decentralized ledgers as new forms of temporality, and/or new temporal regimes…, https://www.librarystack.org/temporal-secessionism-sourcebook/?ref=unknown

Temporal Secessionism started two years ago as a self-initiated project by Nascent. Who or what is Nascent, anyway? We describe Nascent as: … an EXIT TECH production studio investigating alternative infrastructures. Delving into the nature‘ of games, economics, and consensus systems, we create theory-based computational experiments and tools to prototype technological secessionism and spark discussion about the base layers of current stacks. Originally founded as a laboratory for infrastructural and economic experiments, Nascent developed a stronger theoretical focus for the last two years. In doing so we have acknowledged text production as a part of our artistic research, with publications becoming an inevitable outcome. The entanglement of capitalist modes of production, time measurements, and consensus systems is for us an ongoing research field, beginning with the question of how to formulate a generative and affective position towards decentralized ledgers as new forms of temporality, and/or new temporal regimes…, https://www.librarystack.org/temporal-secessionism-sourcebook/?ref=unknown

Thanks to their open source and permissionless nature, crypto protocols have rekindled a popular conversation about public goods. Indeed, the transparency and accessibility of blockchains has already re-imagined models of free exchange and association. Nevertheless, while crypto protocols operate as open networks, do they truly enact a public if solely comprised of private capital? Questions of scope, access, and ownership complicate our understanding of what is public on the internet. Public goods also rely on shared moral conditions, as any “good” is necessarily defined in relation to the value system of a given community. With these considerations, we advocate for an enhanced definition of “public goods,” in service of others and towards civilizational longevity., https://www.librarystack.org/positive-sum-worlds/?ref=unknown

What we know today as ‘the internet’ has historically been accompanied by a particular class of high-definition visions for its future. In this luminous world, a boundless 3D space, digital beings would interact through new forms of collectivity and partake in new modes of making, sharing, learning and trading. The idea of the metaverse—broadly defined as an always-online and persistent spatial virtual world—is being resurrected through a fundamental shift in digital infrastructure. This development includes the relatively recent advent of consumer-level technologies such as video game engines and immersive hardware, and is accelerated by a bearing within the games industry towards user-created worlds. At present, the metaverse is set to be shaped mainly by the interests of large corporations and mass markets. How and why should cultural institutions engage with the construction of the metaverse? And for whose benefit? The purpose of Future Art Ecosystems (FAE) is to provide analytical and conceptual tools and strategic guidance for the construction of 21st-century cultural infrastructure: the systems that would support art and advanced technologies as a whole, and be responsive to a broader societal agenda…, https://www.librarystack.org/art-x-metaverse/?ref=unknown

Thanks to their open source and permissionless nature, crypto protocols have rekindled a popular conversation about public goods. Indeed, the transparency and accessibility of blockchains has already re-imagined models of free exchange and association. Nevertheless, while crypto protocols operate as open networks, do they truly enact a public if solely comprised of private capital? Questions of scope, access, and ownership complicate our understanding of what is public on the internet. Public goods also rely on shared moral conditions, as any “good” is necessarily defined in relation to the value system of a given community. With these considerations, we advocate for an enhanced definition of “public goods,” in service of others and towards civilizational longevity., https://www.librarystack.org/positive-sum-worlds/?ref=unknown

The discussion was recorded December 15, 2018 at the Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin for the closing event of “Proof of Work,” an exhibition curated by artist Simon Denny. The panel features three individuals working at the intersection of art & blockchain tech: scholar and creative producer Jaya-Klara Brekke; artist and director of Furtherfield, Ruth Catlow; and researcher and Gnosis strategist Kei Kreutler. This recording has been made possible by the Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, facilitated by Annina Herzer, Annika Kuhlmann, and Nina Pohl. It has been edited by New Models for the at-home pod-listener’s ease. The panel was moderated by New Models’ Caroline Busta., https://www.librarystack.org/live-a-panel-on-art-blockchain/?ref=unknown

New Models speaks with MAT DRYHURST & KEI KREUTLER, two figures central to Berlin’s diverse crypto scene, to unpack the possible impact of Facebook’s Libra coin (provided it succeeds). From the Bitcoin villages of Switzerland to Libra as an arm of US foreign policy, this episode takes the coin’s tagline at face value asking, _were_ everyone to be invited the the global economy… what would that look like, how would that actually be achieved, and what would the fall out be?, https://www.librarystack.org/e-pluribus-zuck/?ref=unknown

The explosion of interest in cryptocurrencies and distributed computing since Bitcoin’s emergence in 2009 has led to experiments in alternative governance structures, financing, and peer-to-peer networking. This shift has seeded a cultural conversation that has inspired great creative production on both sides of the traditional ars/techne divide. Staged in the Schinkel Klause – the Schinkel Pavillon’s labyrinthine lower floor and a former GDR restaurant – this exhibition brings together works engaged with the culture around Bitcoin and blockchain, entertaining crypto as a possible new infrastructure for money, computing, and organizing. This includes artwork made by crypto builders, crypto experiments built by ..., https://www.librarystack.org/proof-of-work/?ref=unknown

The explosion of interest in cryptocurrencies and distributed computing since Bitcoin’s emergence in 2009 has led to experiments in alternative governance structures, financing, and peer-to-peer networking. This shift has seeded a cultural conversation that has inspired great creative production on both sides of the traditional ars/techne divide. Staged in the Schinkel Klause – the Schinkel Pavillon’s labyrinthine lower floor and a former GDR restaurant – this exhibition brings together works engaged with the culture around Bitcoin and blockchain, entertaining crypto as a possible new infrastructure for money, computing, and organizing. This includes artwork made by crypto builders, crypto experiments built by ..., https://www.librarystack.org/proof-of-work/?ref=unknown