Hi, I’m Wassim. Here are some happenings from the past few months:
(fellowship) I’m delighted to announce that myself and 0x Salon have jointly been awarded a S+T+ARTS Repairing The Present fellowship. We will be in residence at Art Hub Copenhagen throughout ‘22, working on a critical programme of creative and speculative works titled ‘The Art of Indifference’. More here.
(lectures) I’m teaching, convening workshops, and giving public lectures at several universities this semester (spring’22), on both technical and creative topics.
(book) I’m in the midst of writing a book about proof-of-work. Proposal available to prospective publishers on request.
(theatrics) we recently completed ‘SWAN FAKE’ (February’22), an improvised radio play that was funded by the Black Swan Working Group at Trust in early’21. Preview here, get in touch to arrange broadcasts.
(article) writings on the hows and whys of tokenised art ‘JPEGing The Question: Histories and Futures of Immateraliality’ (February’22) is now available on RightClickSave, a new critical discourse platform. Read here.
(article) my article ‘Bitcointingency: An Economics of Indeterminacy’ (February’22) has been published by Weird Economies, an art platform exploring idiosyncrasies of speculative finance. Read here.
(article) I wrote the feature essay ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Tokenised’ (January’22) for issue#70 of Spike Art Magazine, critiquing digital art. Read here.
(interview) Berlin Art Link interviewed me about the 0x Salon, memes, GANs and token art (January’22). Read here.
(article) my editorial column at the MIT Computational Law Report continues with the first in a series on ‘(Mis)adventures in Crypto-Governance’ (December’21). Read here.
(video) I hosted a special broadcast edition salon to launch Timezone#4 (November’21), a new node in the Temporal Secessionism series by Nascent. Watch here.
(article) I wrote an essay ‘Reminiscences of a Clock Operator’ (November’21), examining blockchain xenotemporalities for Temporal Secessionism: Timezone#4 publication compiled by Nascent. Linked here.
(newsletter) I co-write the Sweeping Statements newsletter each month, covering latest 0x Salon happenings.
(podcast) the second and third SalonCast audio reports recently dropped, talking Bitcoin by recounting The Indifference Engine (July’21) & Transcendental Time Machines (October’21) salon conversations with colleagues. Listen via Soundcloud.
(card game) we are currently play-testing the 0x Salon card game, see some recent cards in this Tweet.
(recitals) I read out some words on behalf of the Cryptographic Poetics Researchers’ Union in Berlin on 29th October (Awham Magazine launch @ AP Bookstore) and 4th November (Habib William Kherbek ‘Best Intentions’ book launch @ TV Bar).
(interview) I did an extensive interview on Bitcoin and tokenisation which is in print in the latest issue of Awham Magazine (October’21).
(interview - podcast + transcript) I gave a very detailed interview on TokenSpace, DAOs, MIT, 0x Salon and formative experiences for the kind folks at Diffractions Collective (October’21). Listen / read here.
(videogame stream/talk) I gave a talk inside the ‘Eco’ game environment recently, discussing resource-based economic systems and network externalities (October’21) with The Mycological Twist as part of their Reverse Synergy installation at the 7th Athens Biennale. Watch via YouTube.
(articles) co-authored IPR Glossaries on Cryptoeconomics (April’21) & Mining (April’21)
(video) Vancouver-based 221a hosted a special streamed conversation for the Blockchains & Cultural Padlocks project on the theme of Patricia Reed’s recent piece ‘The Valuation of Necessity: A Cosmological View of Our Technologies & Culture’. I spoke on ‘Metrics, Limits and Externalities’ (June’21). Watch on YouTube.
(articles) 0x Salon collectively authored reportage: Epistemic Trespassing & Algorithmic Realism
(video) panel discussion on ‘Socialising Tokens’ (March’21) at Moneylab Berlin. Watch on Twitch.
(video) panel discussion ‘The Transdisciplinary Art of Token Engineering’ (May’21). Watch on YouTube
(monograph + video) TokenSpace: A Conceptual Framework for Cryptographic Asset Taxonomies (April’19)
(video) Research keynote ‘The Indifference Engine’ (Dec’20), Placemaking Solarpunk @ CCC’20
(articles) Towards An Analytical Discipline of Forkonomy (June’18) & Forkonomy Revisited: Where Are They Now? (Jan’19)
(articles) Reaching Everyone (‘18/’19) for In The Mesh on a dashed hope for radical humanitarian activism with cryptocurrency
(interview) TokenSpace, Bitcoin & Money (June’19)
Current:
Philosophy of Cryptoeconomics @ BlockScience
Technology Editor @ MIT Computational Law Report
Member of Trust, CPRU, m3m3plex, R&DLabs, Cartomancy Cartel collectives
Parallel Industries: Research, Editorial & Epistemology Consultancy
Previously:
Founding Editor, MIT Cryptoeconomic Systems journal & conference chair CES’19 & CES’20
Director of Research, Parallel Industries
Curator, Norbergfestival
Co-founder The Centrifuge label / agency & Supernatant Laboratories discourse series
CEO TenHertz (creative engineering r&d)
PhD Ultrafast Supramolecular Photophysics from The University of Nottingham
Degrees in chemistry, astrophysics and finance
Photo taken by Lisa Blanning
Wassim Z. Alsindi PhD
Wassim is the founder and host of the 0x Salon, which conducts experiments in post-disciplinary collective knowledge practices. A veteran of the timechain, Wassim 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. Wassim has curated arts festivals, led a sculptural engineering laboratory and published experimental music, improvisatory theatre, poetry, and speculative scripture. Building upon research specialisations in the natural sciences, Wassim holds a Ph.D. in ultrafast supramolecular photophysics from the University of Nottingham.