As part of Blockchain@UBC‘s monthly research talk series, Jesse McKee, 221A’s Head of Strategy and lead on the Organization’s Blockchains & Cultural Padlocks Research Initiative, will present the project’s development, its contributors and next steps.
It feels like we have shackled ourselves to living our lives in the 20th century-on-life-support. It is time to renew our cultural practices and relations in order to prevent the unwanted future that was designed for us far too long ago. Over the course of three years, 221A leads a research initiative entitled Blockchains & Cultural Padlocks that is nurturing new and experimental forms of cultural, social and ecological infrastructure that can be designed on the blockchain, with the intention to ‘recommon’ land, data and objects. The Arts, Design and the Humanities have a crucial role to play in deeply adapting our culture towards something that is more cognizant and reactive to the major historical narratives we are navigating today: climate collapse, context collapse, decolonization, economic justice and the equitable redistribution of resources.