[spectre] Fwd: Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain crowdfunder and open call

[nathan jones]

Hi,

delighted to announce Torque's new book and public discourse project, in
partnership with Furtherfield.

ARTISTS RE:THINKING THE BLOCKCHAIN will be a beautifully designed,
accessible introduction, speculative art and radical theoretical book about
this still largely mythical technology.  It aims to reroute conversations
that up to now have been dominated by financial concerns, into less
utilitarian areas.

We're over halfway through our small crowdfunder
<http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/artists-rethinking-the-blockchain>, so we
just need a few more pre-orders and pledges to help us get the project
launched.
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/artists-rethinking-the-blockchain
Your pre-order or donation will contribute to high-quality printing costs,
and most importantly help us compete for funding from Arts Council England,
which is tricky given the shadowy subject matter.
So we need all the help we can!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kngWnLDyeCM

We're also seeking proposals
<http://www.torquetorque.net/projects/open-call-artists-rethinking-the-blockchain/>
for
content.
http://www.torquetorque.net/projects/open-call-artists-rethinking-the-blockchain/

After a range of public events, Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain book
will launch in Jan 2017 as a limited edition print edition and freely
available digital copies, accompanied by a blockchain-based-protocol
version.

It will be our third book after Mind Language Technology
<http://www.torquetorque.net/publications/torque-1-mind-language-and-technology/>(2014)
and The Act of Reading
<http://www.torquetorque.net/products-page/product-category/torque-2-print-ed/>(2015).
The book will be designed by Mark Simmonds.
torquetorque.net

Do share the info if you think others will be interested.

WTF?!
The blockchain is best known as the technology which underlies 'Bitcoin',
but our central assertion is that there is need for discourse, play and
speculation by practitioners outside of financial-technology circles -
particularly given the potential for democratic and cultural changes which
have been proposed as part of blockchain's evolutions.

If you don't know anything or not much about the potentials of the
blockchain, this book aims to bring you up to speed on theory and mechanics
of this new technology. If you do, its a platform to combine the
inventiveness of creative culture with this emergent technology.

It's a hugely resonant time to be undertaking this project, as the book and
discussions will show.  Our current systems of governance, finance and
civic mechanics appear to be crumbling under 'post-truth' politics,
psychotic economics and media saturation.  Is the blockchain going to be
our saviour?  Probably not. But art is a great way to understand and
communicate the reach of new technologies - as well as bend and reroute
them.

We also believe that artists are well placed to communicate with people
about what the future of the blockchain might *really feel like*. This will
strand will take the form of science fictions, experimental texts,
code-recipes, speculative essays, illustrations, diagrams, and hybrids of
all these.

PLEDGE
£5 gets your name inscribed in this landmark publication,
you can pre-order the book at a discounted £15.
There's also screen prints and suchlike available.
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/artists-rethinking-the-blockchain

CONTRIBUTE
An Open Call for essays, artworks, poems etc.
http://www.torquetorque.net/projects/open-call-artists-rethinking-the-blockchain/
[another open call specifically for poets/text artists, based on PW
Studio's Txtblock concept, will launch in a few weeks]

As well as a book, we're going to be hosting several events in Tate and
Furtherfield in London and with St Helens' Heart of Glass project in the
North West getting people engaged in these kinds of ideas, and gathering
their thoughts for publication.

There's loads of lovely rewards there for pledgers.

Hope you enjoy it.

best wishes,

Nathan

-- 
-- 
Nathan Jones
language media art

http://mercyonline.co.uk
http://torquetorque.tumblr.com
http://alittlenathan.co.uk
http://electronicvoicepheneomena.net

mob: 07877660150
twtr: @nathmercy

also follow @syn_dro_me
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