New World Order

A mysterious and controversial technology is among us. The blockchain underpins digital currencies and makes possible dramatic new conceptions of global governance and economy that could permanently enrich or demote the role of humans – depending on who you talk to. Featuring experimental artworks by artists Jaya Klara Brekke, Pete Gomes, Rob Myers, O’Khaos, Paul Seidler, Paul Kolling, Max Hampshire, Lina Theodorou and xfx (a.k.a. Ami Clarke), New World Order imagines a world in which responsibility for many aspects of life (reproduction, decision-making, organisation, nurture, stewardship) have been mechanised and automated, deferred to the blockchain, transferred, once and for all, from natural and social systems into a secure, networked, digital ledger of transactions and computer-executed contracts.

Artworks featured in New World Order include a self-owning, self-exploiting forest with ideas of expansion; a self-replicating android flower in the form of a metal sculpture that, in return for Bitcoins, commissions an artist to create a new artwork; an illustrated sci-fi novella dealing with the implications of a new wave of fully financialised planetary-scale automation; and a film collecting different takes on blockchain technologies by leading thinkers, computer scientists, entrepreneurs, artists and activists, among other things.

Simply put, the blockchain is a network communication protocol based on a distributed database that stores records on different connected computers simultaneously. These are collected in blocks and cryptographically secured. Functionally, a blockchain serves as an open, distributed ledger that can permanently record and verify transactions between two parties.

First conceptualized in 2008 and implemented as a core component of the digital currency Bitcoin, blockchains are now being applied to many different fields, including finance, insurance, communications and healthcare. For promoters its promise lies in the removal of third party mediators, from internet providers to banks. It’s no surprise therefore that, like the Web in the Nineties, the blockchain elicits a passionate debate and new utopian visions for the future of communication technologies.

The exhibition is part of a large-scale programme of publications, workshops and talks that brings together leading international artists and writers from across the globe. Launched at Furtherfield Gallery in London’s Finsbury Park in May 2017, it is now touring to Aksioma | Project Space in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and to the Filodrammatica gallery in Rijeka, Croatia.

Credits and more information about this event and its side programme HERE.

Watch Catlow & Garrett’ talk at Aksioma | Project Space: