Designing With Collective Intelligence 👥

23/01/2024 - 26/01/2024

NFTs, tokens, DAOs, blockchain, Cryptocurrencies??????🧐

In this seminar, we will learn about how non tangible technologies can be used by artist and creators to create new futures, where they corganize in communities make the art bussiness more transparent fair and decentralized.

State of the Art in a Digital Driven World

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the distribution of art has undergone profound transformations. We've transitioned away from traditional methods of art consumption and physical distribution, embracing the widespread adoption of digital platforms. This shift not only facilitates artists connect with a global audience but also reflects the evolving nature of the art in our contemporary world.

While the global accessibility for sure benefits the artists, it introduces unique challenges that demand consideration. Effectively addressing them, including the task of tracking royalties, ensuring robust legal protection, and transparency issues, becomes paramount. These challenges, though, play a critical role in the trajectory and "sustainability" of art in the digital age.

"New" Tech for Creatives

In the realm of blockchain, decentralization plays a super important role, making sure that no authority holds absolute control. DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) exemplify this paradigm shift by changing group structures, breaking with traditional corporate hierarchies. The use of the blockchain technology to record the rules and transactions eliminates the need to have centralized oversight.

DAOs function are based on smart contract rules, making sure that transparency is present through unalterable contracts. Owning a token, allows to vote and have governance rights. This makes NFTs essential for DAO proper functionality, giving power to the members to influence changes in the organization.

Dafne+

So, how can artists have an easy access to create their own DAOs or to collaborate in others???

Enter here the DAFNE+ project, supported by the European Union. The goal of the project is to establishing innovative and distributed autonomous organizations and communities centered around NFTs and digital tokens, all governed in a decentralized manner thanks to DAOs.

This initiative aims to innovate and boost the competitiveness in cultural and creative industries. It plans to achieve it by using this "new" tech to create new revenue models and business strategies, allowing these industries to extend their influence and explore new distribution channels without being limited by intermediaries.

Collaborating with Dafne+

As part of the event Fair Futures, where we collaborated with SODA (School Of Design and Arts) to know more about the Dafne+ project. We were asked to deliver a proposal of a community DAO for the platform. The team I was part of was pretty concerned about the ecological problems going on around the world right now. For this reason, we decided to coceptualice a DAO around it.

Our main focus was the loss of biodiversity. Thanks to the different activities done in the miro board, we worked on how to make and then upgrade the different rules that every member of the community should follow. At the end, we decided to make use of the honorable harvest manifesto as rules. With this set of rules, we were understanding the plants before taking them from the soil. To make this rules tangible, we decided to make the honorable harvest kit, which eat member of the DAO will have. This kit will como with a set of instructions and tools that will represent each rule of the manifesto. Our idea with the kit was to conceptualice and trigger questions in the users about the system we currently live in, where we take and take from nature and produce with an anthropocentric view. By making people realice we can make them ask to governments and corporations a more fair system for all the residents in earth. This way we can trigger policies and laws that defend plants and other living things.

Final Reflections

I find the potential of DAOs and Smart Contracts captivating, offering a glimpse into decentralized decision making and financial transactions. However, my enthusiasm is contained by my worries that their impact relies heavily on the widespread acceptance of a comprehensive legal framework. In the creative and technological space, it becomes a must for innovators and regulators to collaborate and navigate in this evolving landscape responsibly. Moreover, I have a big concern regarding the speculative trends surrounding NFTs, adding a layer of complexity to this environment. As we explore uncharted territory, the integration of legal frameworks with technological advancements, coupled with a discerning approach to NFT speculation, will undoubtedly shape the transformative impact of DAOs and Smart Contracts. The synergy between innovation and regulation remains important to create a future where decentralized paradigms can thrive and shine responsibly.