Radical Friends - BookWyrm

Published by Torque Editions.

ISBN:: 978-0-9932487-7-1

(1 review)

Radical Friends brings together the leading voices in the DAO, NFT, crypto-art, Web3, and blockchain scene to unpack and elucidate the profound potential of these new technologies for the arts. Comprised of essays, artworks, and interviews, the book offers readers a broad introduction to the latest conversations, themes, and experiments in this fast moving field.

DAOs ― decentralised autonomous organisations ― are the most revolutionary technology to emerge in the Web3 space, offering new ways for people to coordinate assets, activities, and value, using smart contracts, tokens, digital objects, and voting on the blockchain.

For the arts, DAOs revitalise the possibilities of: working collaboratively; collective authorship; distributing material; creating value; incentivising behaviour; and certifying intellectual property.

Composed of a wide range of views on and experiments with DAOs, the book looks critically at the technology and its contemporary applications, whilst situating it historically and considering its future in the arts. …

Radical Friends brings together the leading voices in the DAO, NFT, crypto-art, Web3, and blockchain scene to unpack and elucidate the profound potential of these new technologies for the arts. Comprised of essays, artworks, and interviews, the book offers readers a broad introduction to the latest conversations, themes, and experiments in this fast moving field.

DAOs ― decentralised autonomous organisations ― are the most revolutionary technology to emerge in the Web3 space, offering new ways for people to coordinate assets, activities, and value, using smart contracts, tokens, digital objects, and voting on the blockchain.

For the arts, DAOs revitalise the possibilities of: working collaboratively; collective authorship; distributing material; creating value; incentivising behaviour; and certifying intellectual property.

Composed of a wide range of views on and experiments with DAOs, the book looks critically at the technology and its contemporary applications, whilst situating it historically and considering its future in the arts.

Edited by Ruth Catlow and Penny Rafferty, who have been at the forefront of the relationship between DAOs and the arts, the book follows Torque Editions' ground-breaking book Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain.

Contributors: Ramon Amaro, Black Swan DAO, Erik Bordeleau, Calum Bowden, Jaya Klara Brekke, Mitchell Chan, Primavera De Filippi, Cade Diehm, eeefff, Fingerprints DAO, Charlotte Frost, Lucile Haute, Sara Heitlinger, Lara Houston, Cadence Kinsey, Nick Koppenhagen, Kei Kreutler, Aude Launay, Laura Lotti, Jonas Lund, Mao Mollona, Rhea Myers, Bhavisha Panchia, Tina Rivers, Legacy Russell, Nathan Schneider, Hito Steyerl, Alex Taylor, terra0, Cassie Thornton, Suzanne Treister, Stacco Troncoso, Ann Marie Utratel, and Samson Young.

1 edition

Fionnáin reviewed Radical Friends by Ruth Catlow

Multifaceted ideas on distributed leadership

5 stars

This is a very exciting tome. It is about 'Distributed Autonomous Organisations' (DAOs) in the arts. DAOs are essentially a method of leadership of organisations with distributed leadership among members, often using technologies like blockchain to help decision-making. The book has so many ways to be used that it's hard to know how to describe or review it. It is simultaneously an artwork about distributed leadership, a guide to establishing and running DAOs, a philosophical and theoretical exploration of radical friendships, a documentation of existing projects and a more-than-human object that speaks beyond itself. It is really wonderful.

Radical Friends is divided into essays, artworks, conversations and other short sections. It is wonderfully edited and laid out, and is very beautiful throughout – the tarot card deck Hexen 2.0 by Suzanne Treister divides the book sections, and other artistic and aesthetic/design choices are perfect.

Naturally, with so many voices in …

This is a very exciting tome. It is about 'Distributed Autonomous Organisations' (DAOs) in the arts. DAOs are essentially a method of leadership of organisations with distributed leadership among members, often using technologies like blockchain to help decision-making. The book has so many ways to be used that it's hard to know how to describe or review it. It is simultaneously an artwork about distributed leadership, a guide to establishing and running DAOs, a philosophical and theoretical exploration of radical friendships, a documentation of existing projects and a more-than-human object that speaks beyond itself. It is really wonderful.

Radical Friends is divided into essays, artworks, conversations and other short sections. It is wonderfully edited and laid out, and is very beautiful throughout – the tarot card deck Hexen 2.0 by Suzanne Treister divides the book sections, and other artistic and aesthetic/design choices are perfect.

Naturally, with so many voices in many chapters, there are things that I didn't agree with or didn't particularly enjoy, including a very blithe conversation featuring an NFT artist, but as an object the book is magnificent and a great achievement for the editors Ruth Catlow and Penny Rafferty. Hard to pick a highlight, but Rafferty's own essay The Reappropriation of Life and Living is extraordinary, as is Cassie Thornton's contribution.

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