Newsletter 18: $SELF 🪙
Hey there,
Welcome to Newsletter 18! I usually publish on Mondays, but I delayed this week so that I could include a new project I’m working on. It’s called $SELF - A Chain of Identities.
$SELF is a participatory art project that utilizes blockchain technology and a special crypto token I made. It’s been 24 hours since I announced the project, and it has already raised over 2 ETH (~$4,000).
Out of all the NFTs and crypto art that I’ve collected this year, my favorites are the ones that have an interactive or social component to them. I knew at some point I wanted one of my art projects to explore these possibilities too, and $SELF presented the perfect opportunity.
Originally $SELF was just an essay about how blockchain tech reminds me of how personal identity develops over time. But as I wrote, I quickly realized there was an opportunity to actually use the social nature of blockchains to explore our socially constructed identities in a new way.
Read more about it here: https://dame.mirror.xyz/PvFoyiDdcuzbNr-SCYJKZvmkYHZvXA9dcwGp6_DE4Bw
Content I've Been Consuming
Fawkes: Image "Cloaking" for Personal Privacy - “The SAND Lab at University of Chicago has developed Fawkes1, an algorithm and software tool (running locally on your computer) that gives individuals the ability to limit how unknown third parties can track them by building facial recognition models out of their publicly available photos. At a high level, Fawkes "poisons" models that try to learn what you look like…”
At All Costs - An experimental limited edition merch drop from MSCHF that puts the dollar amount you pay on the merch itself.
Economics is Camp - "To adopt camp sensibility is to be empathetic and generous. Camp reinterprets cheesiness and misunderstanding as positive by divorcing them from judgement and evaluation and acknowledging an aesthetic appreciation of them. In that sense, coming to an understanding of economics as camp has laid the foundation for me to queer it—to meet it where it is and to realize that even as I criticize economics, I can always appreciate its art."
The ‘Send Guys’ Who Email Women Novel-Length Relationship Manifestos - "She adds that men seem especially prone to pushing back against boundaries. In fact, Diane says she once put a notice on the contact section of her website that read, ‘Please don’t send me emails about how much you hate your ex-wife,’ and immediately received ‘a whole shit-ton of emails’ exactly like this."
Digital Diaspora - “The Digital Diaspora is an exhibition celebrating Black liberation and creativity. Using Afrofuturism as a guiding principle, The Digital Diaspora is intent on empowering and increasing equity for Black artists by illuminating their influence on culture.”
P.S. The first person to reply to this email with an Ethereum wallet address AND a link you think I’d like will be sent 1,000 $DAME, my new social token.
Thanks for reading,
Dame