blockchain is... / ...for nothing

blockchain is... / ...for nothing
exhibition by peers at httpdot.net

commissioned and presented by protocinema, istanbul, new york, at aetopoulos, athens, with support from spot contemporary art projects, istanbul, february 23 – march 23, 2019
https://httpdot.net/exh/BlockchainIs-ForNothing/

the exhibition blockchain is... / ...for nothing by peers at httpdot.net not only imagines but also proves nothing as a totally dematerialized yet commodified original work of art by building on the legacy of conceptual art and juxtaposing it with the logic and language of blockchain technology, which is perceived as the most important innovation since the internet. the works in the exhibition create a speculative, complex and recursive language challenging the institution of art. yet, the exhibition deals with nothing, literally, and three works as embedded systems running custom free/libre software exhaust this notion of nothing by continuously working on their own quests, for nothing. another work as an embedded system running a custom free/libre software is also on its own quest for becoming an artist by appropriating itself and by being (mis)inspired from blockchain technology, as well as institution of art. two other works are some kind of contemporary web archaeology for blockchain exploring our perception of this new technology, which is hard to grasp for many since it does not refer to any existing common phenomenon, just like the internet was in the beginning, and still is, for many of us. the exhibition creates an immersive experience of an information shower through a sound installation and projections of command-line interfaces of four embedded systems and a text-based video projection covering all the space as well as the bodies of the people in it, all for nothing.

publication

nothing is possible
edited by peer, 2019, free cultural work with multi-free-culture-licenses and author’s declaration

book, 369 pages, a5, published on the occasion of the exhibition blockchain is… / …for nothing by peers at httpdot.net, commissioned and presented by protocinema, istanbul, new york, at aetopoulos, athens, with support from spot contemporary art projects, istanbul, february 23 – march 23, 2019, aggregates all info and free/libre content of the exhibition, published by HTTPpRESS
https://httpdot.net/HTTPpRESS/#nothingIsPossible

download the latest version of the publication and the source file on HTTPpRESS web page

text

peer on blockchain is... / ...for nothing exhibition by peers at httpdot.net
by peer, 2019, free cultural work with multi-free-culture-licenses and author’s declaration

text discussing the exhibition blockchain is… / …for nothing by peers at httpdot.net, commissioned and presented by protocinema, istanbul, new york, at aetopoulos, athens, with support from spot contemporary art projects, istanbul, february 23 – march 23, 2019, also included in the book nothing is possible
https://httpdot.net/peer/texts/peer-BiFn.html

the latest version of the text is available in the publication nothing is possible

works

all works in the exhibition are free cultural works.
visit web pages of the works for free/libre content.

nothing

by the artist, 2019, dedicated to the public domain

literally nothing, as we know it, but as a totally dematerialized yet commodified unique work of art having a certificate of authenticity which contains the digital signature of the artist on nothing, along with the sha-256 cryptographic hash of nothing to verify the authenticity of the artwork. the certificate also states, "this is to certify that nothing is an original artwork by the artist. [...] nothing is appropriated by the artist and also nothing is appropriated by the artist; nothing is dedicated to the public domain by the artist".
https://httpdot.net/theArtist/nothing/

commissioned by protocinema for the exhibition blockchain is... / ...for nothing with support from spot contemporary art projects

the study of the state of nothing: nothing is the same, or, nothing has changed

by peers at httpdot.net, 2019, gnu gplv3

embedded system running a custom copyleft free/libre software on a quest for verifying the state of nothing by calculating hash of empty string, nothing, using various cryptographic hash functions and comparing them to known hash values of nothing, as an obsessive and persistent fixity check for the state of nothing executed once in every minute, and if there is no change, outputs “nothing is the same” on a command-line interface along with all its process, and outputs “nothing has changed”, if anything changes. the work keeps working on its own quest forever, unless there is a system failure or it is turned off, but it carries the same persistent process every time it is turned on.
https://httpdot.net/peers/theStudyOfTheStateOfNothing/

custom software is written as a bash script by bager akbay, along with the pseudocode, and released as a copyleft free/libre software under gnu gplv3.
all programs and utilities executed by bash script are also free/libre software.
the embedded system powered by a gnu/linux operating system is also programmed by bager akbay.
commissioned by protocinema for the exhibition blockchain is... / ...for nothing with support from spot contemporary art projects

the quest for finding something that is nothing, or, the study of what nothing is not

by peers at httpdot.net, 2019, gnu gplv3

embedded system running a custom copyleft free/libre software on a quest of for finding nothing by creating all possible values for a 256-bit of something one-by one, which is a total of 115792089237316195423570985008687907853269984665640564039457584007913129639936 things, and calculating their sha-256 cryptographic hashes to compare them to that of nothing for finding a match and thus finding nothing; or otherwise proves what nothing is not when hash of something does not match that of nothing, and displays the results on a command-line interface as well as all this process of a second-preimage attack on sha-256 hash of nothing as a brute-force cryptographic attack. unless nothing is found before, the quest will last approximately 38526913870000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 years, when the work is not interrupted.
https://httpdot.net/peers/theQuestForFindingSomethingThatIsNothing/

custom software is written as a bash script by bager akbay and orhan 'aib' kavrakoglu, along with the pseudocode, and released as a copyleft free/libre software under gnu gplv3.
all programs and utilities executed by bash script are also free/libre software.
the embedded system powered by a gnu/linux operating system is also programmed by bager akbay.
commissioned by protocinema for the exhibition blockchain is... / ...for nothing with support from spot contemporary art projects

a blockchain for nothing

by peers at httpdot.net, 2019, gnu gplv3

embedded system running a custom copyleft free/libre software on a quest for creating a blockchain for nothing which originates from nothing and continuously building blocks, each of which consisting of nothing but the sha-256 cryptographic hash of the previous block, and displays all blocks created with no proof-of-work on a command-line interface one after another by keeping the record of nothing but the last block. the work keeps working on its own quest forever, unless there is a system failure or it is turned off but it continues from where it left off every time it is turned on.
https://httpdot.net/peers/aBlockchainForNothing/

custom software is written as a bash script by bager akbay, along with the pseudocode, and released as a copyleft free/libre software under gnu gplv3.
all programs and utilities executed by bash script are also free/libre software.
the embedded system powered by a gnu/linux operating system is also programmed by bager akbay.
commissioned by protocinema for the exhibition blockchain is... / ...for nothing with support from spot contemporary art projects

a work of art on a quest for becoming an artist by appropriating itself as a work of art as the proof-of-work by the artist relying on its own proof as an original and authentic work of art
aka proof-of-work-of-art-ist

by peers at httpdot.net, 2019, gnu gplv3

embedded system running a custom copyleft free/libre software as a work of art on a quest for becoming an artist by duplicating and appropriating itself as a work of art by creating random data of its own size and displaying it for 15 seconds as a candidate for an artwork while calculating and comparing the hash of that random data to its own hash and continues this process until it finds a match as a proof of its duplicate as an appropriated work of art as a proof-of-work by the artist.
https://httpdot.net/peers/proof-of-work-of-art-ist/

custom software is written as a bash script by bager akbay, along with the pseudocode, and released as a copyleft free/libre software under gnu gplv3.
all programs and utilities executed by bash script are also free/libre software.
the embedded system powered by a gnu/linux operating system is also programmed by bager akbay.
commissioned by protocinema for the exhibition blockchain is... / ...for nothing with support from spot contemporary art projects

blockchain is...

by peers at httpdot.net, 2019, free cultural work with multi-free-culture-licenses and author’s declaration - https://httpdot.net/FCWwMFCLaAD

video installation with a text-based 9 minute looped video generated using a subtitle file and and consisting of 1426 sentences starting with or including the phrases "a blockchain is", "a blockchain is a", "a blockchain is an", "a blockchain is the", "blockchain is", "blockchain is a", "blockchain is an", "blockchain is the", "blockchain technology is", "blockchain technology is a", "blockchain technology is the", "the blockchain is", "the blockchain is a", "the blockchain is an", "the blockchain is the", "the blockchain technology is", "the blockchain technology is a" and "the blockchain technology is the", which are aggregated from 1621 web pages.
https://httpdot.net/peers/BlockchainIs/

commissioned by protocinema for the exhibition blockchain is... / ...for nothing with support from spot contemporary art projects

blockchain will...

by peers at httpdot.net, 2019, free cultural work with multi-free-culture-licenses and author’s declaration - https://httpdot.net/FCWwMFCLaAD

sound installation with a 171 minute looped stereo panned audio mix from a sound recording of 420 sentences starting with or including the phrases “blockchain will”, “the blockchain will”, “blockchain is going to” and “blockchain technology will”, which are aggregated from 1621 web pages.
https://httpdot.net/peers/BlockchainIs/

spoken by cecilia kinnear and recorded by volkan aslan
commissioned by protocinema for the exhibition blockchain is... / ...for nothing with support from spot contemporary art projects