Matthias Tarasiewicz

We live in times of zero trust [Western, 2013], a term stemming from computer security research, which is applied to all sectors and businesses. Most prominently zero trust is used in cryptoeconomic systems such as Bitcoin and other Blockchain-based technologies - describing the practice to ”never trust, always verify (ibid). This computational trust applies the human notion of trust to the digital world, that is seen as malicious rather than cooperative. The term "Faceless" describes different forms of praxes, which can be read in relationship to the accelerated technological change affecting authorship, agency and production in the 21st century. While the concept of anonymity (namelessness) refers to the unknown identity, facelessness also includes pseudonymity, a disguised or obfuscated entity which also points to leaderless organisation and non-human (AI) or distributed collective agency between humans and machines on the example of distributed autonomous organisations (DAOs). Technology-based and formerly called new media arts can act as a shield and as an encrypted (obfuscated) basis to test and deploy subversive or sub-versioned (critical) research and practice.

Critical Media Arts do not only reflect on new technologies and how they transform society, they also offer a crucial laboratory for the development of new techniques and forms of presenting, structuring and convey- ing knowledge. The core aims of the project »Artistic Technology Research«, presented and reflected in this article, are to stress the critical discourse in (and about) new media, technology, society and its intersections to art/creativity/design. The term »Artistic Technology Research« is seen as a vehicle for creating new actions, interactions and interventions that demonstrate critical views, visualizing and re-structuring our 'Lebenswelt'.

This paper outlines the major criticism cryptocurrencies faced since Bitcoin’s introduction in 2009 that resulted in the iterative development of various 'altcoins'. These alternative cryptocurrencies, which can be seen as 'distributed community experiments', introduced new algorithms while also tackling social and other evolving problems that emerged throughout the various phases of adaptation and collective learning processes. Often introduced through self-published white papers or online announcements, these alternative coins represent hypotheses by the respective creators until they can show a significant user-base and ultimately are accepted in online cryptocurrency exchanges. We examine the important experiments and alternative approaches to specific issues of the Bitcoin design and describe differences in coins that have been launched. We not only discuss successful experiments, but also show attempts that failed in the relatively short but eventful past five years of cryptocurrencies. We demonstrate how the initial design of Bitcoin has been extended and improved by 'next generation cryptocurrencies', while the two main aspects - the blockchain ledger as well as strong cryptography - remain key elements to all of these new systems. Finally we outline possible future problems and developments around the blockchain, which not only is the invention that started cryptocurrencies, but remains the most experimental and challenging part with no long-term strategy yet.

In recent years global economies and city policies have set their sights on the codes of creative cultures. With questionable terms like creative and cultural industries, this movement has not been able to grasp the complex state of the art in which new innovative operations are being pushed by creative and artistic modes of delineation. In fact the involved inventors are becoming ≫disoriented≪ within the parameters of these unstable policies. Being creative, flexible, mistake-friendly, open to life long learning, economically stable and socially networked are the abilities needed to earn a living in creative labor. The current situation calls for the development of a broader view of inflationary used terms like creativity, innovation or code. This introduction presents examples and sketches theoretical descriptions as pathways to a non-economical understanding of codes and programs that underlie creative cultures.

Hacking is not a new practice, as long as people had to make do, had to get things done, had to find a quick fix or a new solution, hacking was around. It is commonly seen as a bottom-up, grass root approach to technology, and therefore sometimes associated with an aura of rebellion and democratizing decentralization. Yet, most of our products are not produced by highly sophisticated robots, but by people working hands-on, hacking away under quite harmful conditions, yet with ridiculously small income. And because they don't own the patent of what they are manufacturing, those who do own the patent get the main portion of the money we pay for these products. Nevertheless, communities who still share skills on how to produce, manufacture, hack and repair things, even if out of necessity, enjoy a certain form of autonomy and seem to have the longer breath. Communities who hack, come up with new ideas they want to tell others, voluntarily or involuntarily they collaborate and mingl...

In this paper we use developments in the history of science to demonstrate the significance of experimental cultures and epistemic spaces within artistic research as an experimental system. We propose that 'artistic products' are process artefacts, which are of epistemic nature (epistemic-aesthetic things). We suggest that artistic research provides a unique opportunity to integrate diverse epistemic practices that currently exist outside traditional institutional frameworks to develop new hypotheses-generating experimental cultures.

We live in times of zero trust [Western, 2013], a term stemming from computer security research, which is applied to all sectors and businesses. Most prominently zero trust is used in cryptoeconomic systems such as Bitcoin and other Blockchain-based technologies - describing the practice to ”never trust, always verify (ibid). This computational trust applies the human notion of trust to the digital world, that is seen as malicious rather than cooperative. The term "Faceless" describes different forms of praxes, which can be read in relationship to the accelerated technological change affecting authorship, agency and production in the 21st century. While the concept of anonymity (namelessness) refers to the unknown identity, facelessness also includes pseudonymity, a disguised or obfuscated entity which also points to leaderless organisation and non-human (AI) or distributed collective agency between humans and machines on the example of distributed autonomous organisations (DAOs). Technology-based and formerly called new media arts can act as a shield and as an encrypted (obfuscated) basis to test and deploy subversive or sub-versioned (critical) research and practice.

Since the microcomputing revolution in the 1970s we live in the age of permanent technological disruptions, but institutional and educational practices remain unchanged. As noted by Flavin, " technologies come and go but the university remains, in a recognizable and largely unchanged form " (Flavin, 2017). Disruptive technologies, such as distributed consensus systems (blockchains, DLTs) challenge the role of the university as gatekeeper to knowledge and question the structure and organisational architecture of institutions. The only chance for traditional institutions is to find interfaces to informal and technology-driven " production cultures " (Tarasiewicz, 2011) to be able to radically reinvent the university. If the universities don't react to technological and societal change, they will be forked, replaced, and decentralized.

The proliferation of information and network technologies has led to a situation where at least some degree of technological skill has become a precondition for social participation. The challenge of facilitating technological literacy has been addressed differently from various players, from the commercial providers of software and hardware, the official educational system, the 'maker movement' as well as from the critical approaches of 'open knowledge' communities. Do we all have to be 'makers'? What does technological critique mean in the 21st century? Artistic Technology inquires the " artistic " in technological arts, in a world which is largely dominated by technology. The conditions of technological interventions are questioned, with artistic-technological research and practice. The focus is on the engagement of communities of artists and interdisciplinary researchers with the intention to facilitate technological literacy and to inspire a critical understanding of the social consequences of technology.

The process CODED CULTURES started by 5uper.net in 2004 intended to bridge the gap of current technological, sociological and artistic research. In this text I focus on incidents based on a »synergetic potential«, »creative emergences« which can be brought up by inter-/ trans-/meta-disciplinary and open cultures of production. CODED CULTURES describe a field that includes media arts as well as »expert cultures«. With a stronger amalgamation of these fields, coded cultures have the potential to not only bring media arts to another level, but also feed back to those production cultures, because they have to open up to a broader audience, to new publics and new discourses.

In his seminal essay on “The author as producer”, Walter Benjamin (1934) addressed the question of (artistic) commitment under certain social conditions. He wrote “the rigid, isolated object (work, novel) is of no use whatsoever. It must be inserted into the context of living social relations.” The political situation has changed a lot since Walter Benjamin wrote his essay, but his ideas are still current and should be elaborated upon. Since the dramatic changes in the 20th century in regards to authorship (on the example of Media Art, Remix Culture) and the rise of digital information and communications technologies (as
outlined by Manuel Castells and many others), the methods of production, dissemination and availability of content have multiplied. In the 21st century, data is the "grease" of the network society, a pervasively mediating and interconnecting element. Everything is data and can be represented through data analysis, or can it?

*Book released in August, 2017* pre-ordering possible!

The contributions to this book explore a phenomenon that appears to be a contradiction in itself – we, the users of computers, can be tracked in digital space for all eternity. Although, on the one hand, one wants to be noticed and noticeable, on the other hand one does not necessarily want to be recognized at the first instance, being prey to an unfathomable public, or – even less so – to lose face.

The book documents artistic and other strategies that point out options for appearing in the infinite book of faces whilst nevertheless avoiding being included in any records. The desire not to become a mere object of facial sell-out does not just remain an aesthetic endeavor. The contributions also contain combative and sarcastic statements against a digital dynamic that has already penetrated our everyday lives.

Cultural accomplishments of individuals or differently organized forms of human beings in context with an ever-changing (transforming) environment bring manifold products and processes to surface: cultural artifacts, »distributed agencies«, »framed interactivity« , collective ideas. The city as explorative can be used in dislocated ways, to test and explore new media arts, media architecture, hacktivism and similar fields of reflective practice. Through interactive and experimental forms of presentation, accompanied by classical forms of displaying new media arts (such as exhibitions and performances) the role of media arts, media artists and art festivals as such are to discussed, presented and reflected upon.

Coded Cultures: Exploring Creative Emergences (2009) is a booklet and reader about the binational edition of Coded Cultures in 2009 (Austria &– Japan).

Through the establishment of "Coded Cultures", enabled by digital media and global communication networks, new practices and ability profiles of creative and artistic delineation and exploration are gaining new grounds. Furthermore, economic models are eager to create synergies with symbolic values of cultural and artistic programs to deal with the potentials of “creativity”. At the moment these profiles are roughly subsumed (e.g. as “creative class”), but at the present day it is difficult to predict which catalysts and draft programs can be put into effect for these creative innovation processes. On the other hand it has to be questioned if innovation like it is understood by policy makers of entrepreneurship is a desired state for artistic projects and networks. This phenomena which is set up via global nodes of creativity (e.g. networks, communities, organizations, projects, etc.) is more and more uprooting disciplinary guidelines and permitted structures of local traditions. Therefore, this vectors have changed the ways of cooperation and development in socio-cultural production paradigms. “Coded Cultures” is asking how artistic and creative projects are dealing with this conditions and in which way they support or antagonize this developments.

BCL, exonemo, Walter Langelaar, Ludic Society, Kazuki Saita, Soishiro Mihara, Hiroko Mugibayashi, Yuko Mohri, Saso Sedlacek, SHIMURABROS., Tetsuya Umeda, Mamoru Okuno, 5Voltcore, Marina Grzinic, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Machiko Kusahara, Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau, Manfred Faßler, Mathias Fuchs, Thomas Fürstner, Verena Kuni, Hisashi Muroi, Martin Pichlmair, Sabine Seymour, Yukiko Shikata, Fumihiko Sumitomo, Bernhard Garnicnig, Gottfried Haider, Verina Gfader, Takahiro Kaneshima, Ivan Popyrev, Aldo Tolino, UBERMORGEN.COM.

Produced in March 2013, "A Brief History of Bitcoin" shows an overview of important Events that led to the success of the Blockchain after the introduction of Bitcoin. Poster created by Artistic Bokeh as part of the project "Artistic Technology Research".

[Making.Artistic.Technology] 'Faceless Value: Mobile Laboratory for the New Aesthetic of Digital Exchanges'

Faceless Value is an open and mobile laboratory that is investigating the invisible iconographies of digital exchange. The central question that motivates the research addresses the capacity of digital technologies to signify and communicate economic value and their influence on our understanding of this concept.

Thursday, 29 October
18:00 Welcome and Introduction
18:30 Soft(ware) Value; a historical analysis of the present, Georgios Papadopoulos & Matthias Tarasiewicz
A short history of digital currencies from their first incarnations in videogames and programming to DigiCash, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
19:30 Drinks

Friday, 30 October
18:00–20:00 Workshop: Post-digital Numismatics
The aim of the workshop is to sample from different economic media and interfaces, including alt-coins, e-banking portals, paywalls, credit card websites, private and public corporate logos. The output of the workshop will be presented to the public on the closing event.

Saturday, 31 October
11:00–18:00 Workshop: Post-digital Numismatics Continued
18:30–19:00 Presentation of the output of the workshop
19:00–19:30 Performance Lecture Economic Picnolepsy: Value Aesthetics and the Disappearance of Money, Georgios Papadopoulos
The performance lecture tries to capture the epileptic state of consciousness (described as picnolepsy by Paul Virilio) produced by the speed of circulation of economic value in electronic networks and automated financial *transactions*.
20:00 Reception Money-Music Extravaganza
Faceless Value will come to a highpoint with a money-themed party. The results of the workshop will be ready for viewing. Everybody is welcome to participate and experience the fever of the acceleration of the **circulation** of money. If it’s good for the economy, it’s good for everybody and for the Art too.

All the events are __open__ to everyone, but for _the_ better planning of the workshop, participants are kindly asked (but not required) to register in advance here: http://goo.gl/forms/XvF6Bkz16g

Georgios Papadopoulos is a theorist that combines economics, aesthetics and philosophy with an exploratory artistic practice. His research gravitates around money and he has published three books and many articles on the subject. In 2012 he received the Vilém Flusser Award for Artistic Research from the transmediale festival. Georgios Papadopoulos is in residence at HIAP during October and November 2015 and he is participating in the project Skills of Economy, curated by Jussi Koitela (www.skillsofeconomy.com).

Matthias Tarasiewicz founded the CODED CULTURES initiative (media arts festival and research platform) and is active as curator, researcher and technology theorist since the last millenium. Deeply involved in coding and decoding (both literally and theoretically) he researches in the fields of artistic technologies, experimental documentation and cryptocurrencies.

HIAP Gallery Augusta/Project Space
Suomenlinna B 28/2
00190 Helsinki

Building no 33 on the Suomenlinna map
http://frantic.s3.amazonaws.com/suomenlinna/2015/09/kartta_en.pdf

This workshop is part of "Making Artistic Technology", in cooperation with Artistic Technology Research and Artistic Bokeh

From BitCoin to Timebanks, the emergence of alternative systems of economic value and exchange represents a profound shift in contemporary culture. But what role has design played in delivering this change and what are the possibilities-and values- for thinking about alternative economics in contemporary design culture?

Chair:  Professor Guy Julier, Professor of Design Culture, University of Brighton and V&A / University of Brighton Principal Research Fellow in Contemporary Design. Author of Economies of Design, (Sage 2017).

Panel

Dr Martina Grunewald, Postdoctoral Researcher in Design History and Theory, University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Professor Alison Clarke, Chair of Design History and Theory, University of Applied Arts Vienna and Director of the Victor J. Papanek Foundation, University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Dr Ozlem Savas, Assistant Professor, Bilkent University, Turkey.

Matthias Tarasiewicz, new media artsist and technology theorist, co-founder of Research Institute for Arts and Technology

In his seminal essay on the author as producer, Walter Benjamin formulates a paradigm for critical production, namely to change the apparatus of production. Many examples of today's participatory culture show the successful implementation of user activities into interfaces and business models (Schäfer 2011). However, we found that these activities have a larger impact and affect infrastructures in general. This paper presents how technology development is deliberately used for providing alternative and possibly deviant infrastructures for knowledge dissemination, archiving and even monetary transactions on the example of the crypto currency Bitcoin. Referring to case studies of infrastructures for collaboration (hacker spaces, art labs etc.), information dissemination (e.g. our self developed software for small research networks), and financial transactions (Bitcoin) we discuss critically the potential of creative research for emancipatory technologies. This paper provides insights in key aspects of online cultural production and how the development of emancipatory technologies is intertwined with offline economics and policy making in the educational sector. In consequence this paper argues how scholarship and activism unfolds in hybrid spaces that oscillate between the corporate world, universities and underground networks.

AXIOM is the first professional, extendable, affordable and modular cinema camera platform based on Free ("libre") Software, Open Design, Open Hardware, transparent development processes and extensive documentation. The community project establishes an ecosystem that offers a sustainable basis for a broad spectrum of imaging applications and empowers enthusiasts, videographers as well as developers in the technology and creative industry sectors.

The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of hackers with 5,500 registered members. The CCC hosts the annual Chaos Communication Congress, Europe's biggest hacker gathering. When the event was held in the Hamburg congress center in 2013, it drew 9,000 guests. For the 2016 instalment, 11,000 guests were expected, with additional viewers following the event via live streaming.

Coded Cultures: Festival for fringe research and experimental arts. OPENISM is the 6th issue of Coded Cultures discussing concepts of openness with a focus on open hardware and open technologies and their implications for art, science and society. It is a critical forum to debate the relevance of these technologies and to investigate critical strategies of technological appropriation, which in their different approaches and cultural techniques are constituting communities of practice.

Coded Cultures: Festival for fringe research and experimental arts. OPENISM is the 6th issue of Coded Cultures discussing concepts of openness with a focus on open hardware and open technologies and their implications for art, science and society. It is a critical forum to debate the relevance of these technologies and to investigate critical strategies of technological appropriation, which in their different approaches and cultural techniques are constituting communities of practice.

The festival features over 80 national and international participants and is structured into labs, workshops and performative interventions. Additionally, the festival implements micro-conferences, such as the first Dogecoin Austria Meetup and the first austrian Risography convention. A social space (Coded Cultures Central) is installed, featuring a Critical Repair Cafe, the «AXIOM Open Source Cinema Lab» and the «Open Publishing Lab».

The first Open Hardware Europe Summit brings key participants of the Open Hardware movement to Vienna Austria. In MAK - Museum for Applied Arts, critical aspects of open design, open source and open technologies are discussed and presented on saturday, 28th of May 2016. This initial gathering is followed by the launch of an Open Hardware Lab (RIAT) and an exchange programe for international researchers in cooperation with MuseumsQuartier Vienna. Coded Cultures: OPENISM and the Open Hardware Europe Summit are organised by RIAT - Research Institute for Arts and Technology.

Seit jeher versucht der Mensch, seine Umwelt an seine Bedürfnisse anzupassen. Ebenso lang sucht er nach Wegen, sich selbst zu verbessern. Ein Kommentar zu 'biotech art' und Vorstellung der Künstler+Forschergruppe BCL (Georg Tremmel und Shiho Fukuhara), die bei Coded Cultures 2009 in Wien und Tokyo dabei sind. (Aus: TheGap 094, 3.März 2009)

Ein spielerischer Zugang zum Leben bleibt nicht bloß Kindern vorbehalten. Innerhalb von Innovationskulturenkann der Homo ludens auch als Erwachsener sein Potenzial ausleben. Ein Ausflug in die WeIt der Modding Culture, die es ohne >Playfulness<, in dieser Form nicht gäbe. (Aus: TheGap 090)

RIAT is an institute for research, development, communication and education in the fields of crypto-economics and the blockchain.

Our academy is aimed at different skill-levels and prepares entrepreneurs, developers and non-developers alike to become part of the crypto-economy. We offer workshops, extensive training and consulting in planning, design and development of blockchain technologies, smart contracts and decentralised applications.

http://riat.academy