The Art of Indifference: The Black Hole of Money 2022, in Entwicklung

Wassim Z. Alsindi specialises in conceptual design and philosophy of peer-to-peer systems, on which he writes, speaks, teaches, and consults. He has an editorial column at the MIT Computational Law Report, and he co-founded MIT’s Cryptoeconomic Systems journal and conference series. He has curated arts festivals, led a sculptural engineering laboratory and published experimental music, improvisatory theatre, poetry, and speculative scripture. He holds a Ph.D. in ultrafast supramolecular photophysics from the University of Nottingham and is the founder and host of the 0x Salon.The 0x Salon is an ongoing, non-profit experiment in collective knowledge sharing and cultural production. Since 2020, the collective has been hosting salons – small-scale, private discourse sessions – on a range of conversation topics such as Bitcoin’s ecological impact, memes, automation, nonhuman life, and collective behaviour. The 0x Salon Team for this exhibition is comprised of Habib William Kherbek, Klara Kofen, Anna-Luise Lorenz, Claire Tolan, KatharineTyndall, Bertram von Undall & StevenWarwick.

Through a participatory game and a satirical play, The Art of Indifference is a twofold project that interrogates the environmental implications of cryptocurrencies, set in a dystopian future that stretches the contemporary tensions between capital and ecology in the current scarcity-based global economic regime. The Black Hole of Money composes the second part of the work, on view at this exhibition: a speculative fiction theatre play which satirises Bitcoin’s ecocidal growth, exploring the evolution of a cryptocurrency-based market along with its consequences on aggravating social and political instabilities and energy crises. Morally reflecting on technological progress and stakeholder capitalism in the midst of climate emergencies, the narrative spans across multiple parallel timelines originating from present-day events, comprising zealous ideologues and implacable antagonists, self-important academics and weary time travellers, along with AI characters and a shapeshifting blackhole to speculate on the future of humanity and four possible strategies for survival: acceleration of the quest for limitless energy; attempt to tame Bitcoin with regulation; conducting insurrectionary uprisings; or acquiescence to the new machine god. The Black Hole of Money was presented live in Copenhagen in August, 2022.

The Art of Indifference as been developed within the framework of Blockchain Society, a S+T+ARTS residency hosted by Art Hub Copenhagen whose aim was to explore the promises and potentials of blockchain from the point of view of their symbolic and systemic aspects, including their consequences for representation and contemporary systems of knowledge and power. The residency benefited from a partnership with Click Festival (Helsingør, Denmark).

The Black Hole of Money, Concept and Creative Direction: Wassim Z. Alsindi. Writers: Wassim Z. Alsindi, Habib William Kherbek, Claire Tolan, Katharine Tyndall. Staging, direction, lighting, AV: Steven Warwick, Klara Kofen. Performers: Neil Bennun, Lassi Bondesen, Peter Palluth, Nynne Roberta Pedersen Pedersen. Graphics, animation, visual direction: Bertram von Undall, Anna-Luise Lorenz, Joel Galvin. Video editing: Laura Cugusi.

Legal Notice/Colophon

0xsalon.pubpub.org

Ars Electronica Archiv (aec.at)

Art Hub Copenhagen – S+T+ARTS