ETHBerlin’s Department of Decentralization Partners with Foundation

When the Department of Decentralization first came together, it was important to all of us to have a strong perspective on the intersection of art and crypto and to make space to explore that. After a successful Culture Hall at ETHBerlin 2018, we established the art department within our collective. What followed has been super exciting for everyone:

• We ran art exhibitions at ETHBerlin 2019 and DEVCONV Osaka
• We hosted various panels in London, Berlin, and online
• We published a comprehensive report on the intersection of art and crypto in 2019, titled “There’s No Such thing as Blockchain Art”
• And we’re underway on another report, slated to come out this year.

We’re also thrilled to announce our new partnership with Foundation for TwoPointFive, our upcoming online conference set to take place on Thursday, November 19. In considering partners, we have been extremely selective — we need to ensure that anyone we work with is an ally, aligned with what we believe, or ready to challenge our thinking productively. Foundation is just that.

DoD x Foundation

Foundation is a platform that offers the creative community new forms of monetization, ownership, and participation that transform how art is valued and experienced.

We believe that creators must be included in the building of platforms that serve them from day one — this is essential for building a product that thoroughly addresses the challenges facing creative people, especially around profiting and intellectual property. Foundation is built on this idea by empowering artists to create their own art markets with DeFi and crypto technology.

Elements of the Partnership

To kick off our collaboration, we’ll be working with artist Arvida Byström to create works that respond to the conference’s theme, “The body always needed to be somewhere” (more below). The exhibition will launch just before the conference, and the artworks will be exclusively available for auction on Foundation. Foundation will also be hosting a panel discussion at the conference about the cultural-crypto space and NFT art. We’ll share more information on that as it becomes available.

We are also including Foundation as a case study in our forthcoming 2020 report. This is all just the beginning, and there will be much more to come.

2020 Conference Theme: The body always needed to be somewhere

When the disconnection to the physicality that makes us human creates a feeling of otherness, are we still really ourselves without the body? Or, does this disconnection, in fact, liberate us from the heaviness which a body brings? How do we live in these virtual universes without losing our sense of the self — losing the self to the otherness? Do we need physicality or are bodies just mere vessels for transportation?

About Arvida Byström:

Arvida Byström is a Swedish digital artist exploring femininity and its complexities often in online culture. Her photography and endless instagram scroll have been in art shows all over the world, and she has appeared both behind and in front of the camera for numerous influential brands and magazines, including Gucci, Absolut Vodka, Dazed media, i-D magazine, Topshop, Numero Berlin, Polaroid Originals, and Vice Magazine.

About Foundation:

Foundation is where creators, buyers, and collectors are building a new creative economy, together. It’s where new forms of ownership and monetization are transforming what we thought we knew about value. Join us at Foundation.app.

About the Department of Decentralization:

Department of Decentralization (DoD) is a collective of individuals working to drive adoption and educate newcomers about decentralization and open source software.