Museums on-chain? A designerly contribution in the development of blockchain-based digital strategies in cultural institutions

Blockchain technologies have been referred to as potential drivers for paradigm shifts in the arts and cultural sector. Their multiple applications in the cultural and creative industries have recently started to be discussed by scholars, mainly coming from social and computer science disciplines. From crypto collectibles for archiving and documentation, to rights management and digital protection, fundraising and decentralization purposes: the potential use cases of blockchain technologies are varied, so as are varied the actors in the cultural and creative ecosystems that have started experimenting with these disruptive technologies. Nevertheless, despite the turmoil experienced from the practitioners’ side, cultural institutions remain largely sceptical about the expected benefit. Museums refrain from engaging with decentralized technologies like blockchain due to their perception of the numerous risks involved, as well as to the inevasible barriers to entry. The present paper relies on the hypothesis that design knowledge, methods, and tools may foster the envisioning of valuable applications of blockchain technologies within cultural institutions, and museums. It includes a systematic review of blockchain technologies use cases in cultural institutions, and the preliminary results from a set of semi-structured interviews to practitioners active in the implementation of blockchain in cultural institutions. To discuss the results, the work aims to reckon on design knowledge to stimulate reflection on alternative, and future-oriented ways of experiencing culture and cultural assets, providing museums and their stakeholders with a fulfilling cultural experience and with novel revenue sources through blockchain

FinBook: literary content as digital commodity

This short essay explains the significance of the FinBook intervention, and invites the reader to participate. We have associated each chapter within this book with a financial robot (FinBot), and created a market whereby book content will be traded with financial securities. As human labour increasingly consists of unstable and uncertain work practices and as algorithms replace people on the virtual trading floors of the worlds markets, we see members of society taking advantage of FinBots to invest and make extra funds. Bots of all kinds are making financial decisions for us, searching online on our behalf to help us invest, to consume products and services. Our contribution to this compilation is to turn the collection of chapters in this book into a dynamic investment portfolio, and thereby play out what might happen to the process of buying and consuming literature in the not-so-distant future. By attaching identities (through QR codes) to each chapter, we create a market in which the chapter can ‘perform’. Our FinBots will trade based on features extracted from the authors’ words in this book: the political, ethical and cultural values embedded in the work, and the extent to which the FinBots share authors’ concerns; and the performance of chapters amongst those human and non-human actors that make up the market, and readership. In short, the FinBook model turns our work and the work of our co-authors into an investment portfolio, mediated by the market and the attention of readers. By creating a digital economy specifically around the content of online texts, our chapter and the FinBook platform aims to challenge the reader to consider how their personal values align them with individual articles, and how these become contested as they perform different value judgements about the financial performance of each chapter and the book as a whole. At the same time, by introducing ‘autonomous’ trading bots, we also explore the different ‘network’ affordances that differ between paper based books that’s scarcity is developed through analogue form, and digital forms of books whose uniqueness is reached through encryption. We thereby speak to wider questions about the conditions of an aggressive market in which algorithms subject cultural and intellectual items – books – to economic parameters, and the increasing ubiquity of data bots as actors in our social, political, economic and cultural lives. We understand that our marketization of literature may be an uncomfortable juxtaposition against the conventionally-imagined way a book is created, enjoyed and shared: it is intended to be

You don't have to be poor to be an artist: Rejecting the old ways of the London Art market, many artists are starting their own alternative business models

The study for this MRes thesis investigates London’s contemporary art market as a form of enquiry about contemporary management practices in art environments (small galleries, artist studios, online galleries) covering the main aspects of the art leadership role and extending the enquiry into the interdependence between the traditional practices in the art market and contemporary changes in society (technological, economic, financial, social), also exploring new ways for positioning art works in the market and ways of engaging the public implemented by artists. The research thereby, responds to the question of to what extent the traditional model of gallery management is continuing to serve the artist or how it is being superseded by innovative approaches employed directly by the artist. The research surveys the perspective of emerging artists on how to enter the contemporary art market, in order to evaluate if the traditional business model of commercial galleries is still current and valid. It investigates the extent to which the role of the artist is evolving and it aims towards an improved perception of the role of the art manager. First, it identifies the role of the art manager as perceived by practitioners and researchers. Secondly, it presents funding on how contemporary artists are increasingly developing an entrepreneurial perspective, employing innovative forms of business model approaches. Thirdly, it explores how art management practices are evolving and artists are employing new approaches in promoting and selling their art. The following insights can be drawn from the research. The London Art market is prolific and competitive, yet dominated by the traditional gallery model. Artists struggle to achieve recognition and support from galleries, yet their endorsement remains essential. In response to this, a new figure of “artist entrepreneur” has emerged, challenging the tradition with new ways of working and selling art. Additionally, disruptive changes in technology are enabling artists to sell in innovative ways that bypass the system

Toward a Minor Tech: A Peer-reviewed Newspaper, Volume 12, Issue 1, 2023

Following a process of open exchanges and a three-day research workshop in London, at London South Bank University and King’s College, London, the publication brings together researchers who address the problems of technological scale, thinking through the potentials of ‘the minor’; or what we are referring to as minor (or minority) tech. As such, the publication sets out to question the universal ideals of technology and its problems of scale, extending it to follow the three main characteristics identified in Deleuze and Guattari’s essay (Toward a Minor Literature), namely deterritorialization, political immediacy, and collective value.  Contributions by Christian Ulrik Andersen, Geoff Cox, Camille Crichlow, Mateus Domingos, Feminist Servers (mara karagianni & nate wessalowski), Teodora Sinziana Fartan, Susanne Förster, Inte Gloerich, Daniel Chávez Heras, Macon Holt, Jung-Ah Kim, Edoardo Lomi, Inga Luchs, Gabriel Menotti, Alasdair Milne, Anna Mladentseva, Shusha Niederberger, Søren Bro Pold, Roel Roscam Abbing, Winnie Soon, Magdalena Tyżlik-Carver, Varia, Jack Wilson, xenodata co-operative (Yasemin Keskintepe & Alexandra Anikina), Sandy Di Yu, Freja Kir. Design & Production: Manetta Berends and Simon Browne (Varia)

New Frontiers in Technology: Can Traditional Intellectual Property Rights Laws Be Adapted and Applied to NFTs?

A decade ago, ‘NFTs’ were rarely heard of or known to anyone, unless they worked in or kept up with the tech world. However, they are not new - they have been around for almost two decades. Their popularity has grown over the past few years. ‘NFT’ stands for ‘non-fungible token’. An NFT is a digital file with a unique identity that is verified on a blockchain and is therefore not interchangeable - i.e., a kind of crypto asset, like an authentication certificate for digital artifacts. In theory, NFTs can represent almost any real or intangible property. These days, it seems as though what can be an NFT is limited only by one’s imagination. Since NFTs were a relatively unheard-of phenomenon until late 2020, there was no real focus on regulating them. With their boost in popularity, that can no longer continue. Unfortunately, our current legal system does not have an adequate way of addressing the arising issues. The goal of this paper was to look at traditional intellectual property rights laws as they stand today and analyze whether they can be applied to NFTs in their current iterations, or whether (and how) these laws need to be adapted to adequately address the issues with NFTs. This paper looks at three different branches of IPR laws - copyright, trademark, and patent. This paper also discusses two experiments conducted by the author - buying An NFT and creating and attempting to sell an NFT of her own artwork

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF ART INVESTMENTS – THE APPLICABILITY OF EU and US INVESTOR PROTECTION REGULATIONS TO THE ART MARKET

In the face of increasing inflation rates and global political as well as economic turmoil, investors are looking for alternatives to securities and bonds to store values. Among those asset classes benefitting from this trend is art. Record-breaking results at auctions, a quick market recovery following the pandemic as well as stable compound annual growth rated of the art market have stirred the interest of a growing number of investors in this form of alternative investment which promises stability in times of economic uncertainty. This trend is furthermore spurred by technological advancements; especially DLT-based business models add to the practicability and accessibility of investment models. For the art market, which previously used to be an investment option reserved rather for high-net worth individuals, the digitalization of values brings the opportunity to address new market participants. As an example, concepts such as the “tokenization” of artworks and “fractional ownership” invite a broader public, who would otherwise hardly have access to this asset. By extending the offer to invest in an artwork to many instead of just to a single collector, the costs for each individual investor are reduced to only a share of the actual sales price. Accordingly, art has become a widely recognized alternative asset class, which is constantly compared to conservative forms of investment, such as stocks and bonds. Against this background, the question arises as to what extent art is regulated as an asset class. The importance of an in-depth analysis of the applicable investor protection rules becomes even more apparent in consideration of the opacity of the art market, which also accounts for a reason why this sector has been only scarcely addressed by legal academia so far. The relatively new practical accessibility of the art investment market stands in stark contrast to the lack of available information on the traded properties. The deep-rooted tradition of discretion in art trades continues to shroud a cloak of silence over essential data on past and ongoing sales, with the result of there being an insufficient informational basis for investors to predict price developments. This dissertation project aims to shed light on the opaque structures of art investments and examine the currently applicable level of investor protection rules in direct comparison to that in traditional securities markets. The jurisdictional scope of this paper extends to both, the financial market laws of the European Union as well as of the United States of America. In this context, also the question will be raised as to how art investment instruments can be categorized from a legal point of view, in particular, whether they fit into the existing framework of financial instruments

Pathway to Future Symbiotic Creativity

This report presents a comprehensive view of our vision on the development path of the human-machine symbiotic art creation. We propose a classification of the creative system with a hierarchy of 5 classes, showing the pathway of creativity evolving from a mimic-human artist (Turing Artists) to a Machine artist in its own right. We begin with an overview of the limitations of the Turing Artists then focus on the top two-level systems, Machine Artists, emphasizing machine-human communication in art creation. In art creation, it is necessary for machines to understand humans' mental states, including desires, appreciation, and emotions, humans also need to understand machines' creative capabilities and limitations. The rapid development of immersive environment and further evolution into the new concept of metaverse enable symbiotic art creation through unprecedented flexibility of bi-directional communication between artists and art manifestation environments. By examining the latest sensor and XR technologies, we illustrate the novel way for art data collection to constitute the base of a new form of human-machine bidirectional communication and understanding in art creation. Based on such communication and understanding mechanisms, we propose a novel framework for building future Machine artists, which comes with the philosophy that a human-compatible AI system should be based on the "human-in-the-loop" principle rather than the traditional "end-to-end" dogma. By proposing a new form of inverse reinforcement learning model, we outline the platform design of machine artists, demonstrate its functions and showcase some examples of technologies we have developed. We also provide a systematic exposition of the ecosystem for AI-based symbiotic art form and community with an economic model built on NFT technology. Ethical issues for the development of machine artists are also discussed

An Ethnographic Examination of Belonging and Hype in Web3 Communities

Advocates of the Web3 movement want the next stage of the internet’s evolution to be characterized by the decentralization of virtual assets and the democratization of digital participation via possibilities afforded by blockchain technology. In this ethnography, the researcher contrasts the ideologies and material practices of individuals and communities composing said Web3 schema, including enthusiasts of the emergent metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and blockchain-based institutions called decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that rely on a blend of human and algorithmic governance to operate. Based on fieldwork in London, England during the summer of 2022, this thesis uncovers patterns of hype making and hype ambivalence that inform belonging within Web3 spaces and conversely establish parameters for exclusion. The auratic qualities of NFTs the researcher acquired at Proof of People, a three-day NFT and metaverse festival hosted in London’s Fabric nightclub, are also investigated. With data compiled from a mix of in-person and virtual settings, the claims presented in this thesis arrive at a critical moment for crypto. Universal devaluation of blockchain assets following a market freefall in 2021 has battered the decentralized movement, but the Web3 informants featured herein remain optimistic about the vitality of a digital paradigm in its alleged nascency

Non-fungible tokens (NFTS) and their security challenges

The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market has been exploding in the past years. The notion of NFT originated with Ethereum's token standard, which aimed to differentiate each token using distinguishing signals. Tokens of this type can be associated with virtual or digital properties to serve as unique identifiers. Using NFTs Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a new technology gaining traction in the Blockchain industry. In this article, we examine state-of the art NFT systems that have the potential to reshape the market for digital virtual assets. We will assess the security of existing NFT systems and expand on the opportunities and prospective uses for the NFT idea. Finally, we discuss existing research challenges that must be overcome before mass-market penetration may occur. We hope that this paper provides an up-to-date analysis and summary of existing and proposed solutions and projects, making it easier for newcomers to stay current.Fonksuz Belirteç (NFT) pazarı son yıllarda patlama yapıyor. NFT'nin nosyonu Ethereum'un belirteç standardıyla ortaya çıkmıştır ve bu durum, her belirteci ayırt edici sinyaller kullanarak ayırt etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu tipteki belirteçler, benzersiz tanımlayıcılar olarak hizmet vermek için sanal veya dijital özelliklerle ilişkilendirilebilir. NFTS Non-Fungible Token (NFT) kullanmak, Blockchain endüstrisinde yeni bir teknoloji kazanıyor. Bu makalede, dijital sanal varlıklar için pazarı yeniden şekillendirme potansiyeline sahip son teknoloji ürünü NFT sistemlerini inceliyoruz. Mevcut NFT sistemlerinin güvenliğini değerlendirecek ve NFT fikri için fırsatları ve olası kullanımları genişleteceğiz. Son olarak, kitle pazara giriş gerçekleşmeden önce aşılması gereken mevcut araştırma zorluklarını ele alıyoruz. Bu incelemede, mevcut ve önerilen çözüm ve projelerin güncel bir analizi ve özeti sağlanarak, yeni gelenlerin güncel kalmasını kolaylaştırılmasını umuyoruz.No sponso