Entangled Transparency 3.0 conference hosted by ZKM | Karlsruhe, Hyundai Art Lab and Goethe-Institut Korea

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Hyundai Art Lab and Goethe-Institut Korea are organizing a free online conference called Entangled Transparency 3.0 on March 9, 2023. The conference aims to explore the implications of digitization processes on the global scale and changes to the political world order. It will pose questions such as how to maintain online self-determination and sovereignty, and what blockchain technology means for artistic production, outreach, and their infrastructures.

Advances in information technology and climate change are the biggest challenges of our times, and they trigger queries about what forms of governance and social organization are conceivable against this backdrop of complex restructuring. Sovereignty, whether national or personal, must be constantly renegotiated to find a balance, and is therefore reliant on the free flow of information. However, the instrument by which we stay connected across national borders is controlled by a few corporations and functions like an absolute monarchy. Web 3.0 promises a blockchain-based solution for a decentralized and federated internet.

The conference will also explore the impact of blockchain-based technologies on art institutions and pose questions about transparency, its contradictions, challenges, and risks within a new kind of web from a cultural perspective. ZKM | Karlsruhe and its project partners are initiating a dialogue about alternatives to Web 2.0 that is currently in use.

The conference program includes keynote speeches by Bogna Konior and Maurice Benayoun, who will touch upon specific theories of the internet, followed by manifesto performances on Web 3.0’s relation to transparency by artists, researchers, and collectives such as Jaya Klara Brekke, Crypton, Primavera De Filippi, Sarah Friend, Kyriaki Goni, Operator, Bhavisha Panchia, and Bi Xin. Curators and art practitioners, including Ruth Catlow, Michael Connor, Sabine Himmelsbach, Yannick Hofmann, Chuang Wei Tzu, and Hyunjung Woo, will elaborate on the potential role of Web 3.0 in art institutions and museums. The final discussion among the participants will be moderated by Michael Connor.

As an exemplary Web 3.0 prototype, an endless poem inspired by Peter Weibel accompanies the discussion program. The artistic-scientific chairman and CEO of the ZKM | Karlsruhe will start the collaborative online text, which will then be continued by anyone who wants to participate. This interactive artwork will be available in a digital exhibition, along with other contributions via the link et3.common.garden.

The conference promises to be an insightful and informative event for those interested in the implications of blockchain technology on various sectors and the potential of Web 3.0 for a decentralized and federated internet. It brings together international practitioners, artists, researchers, and theorists to initiate a dialogue about alternatives to the current web and explore the impact of digitization on the global scale and changes to the political world order. Participation in the conference is free of charge and will take place online.