welcome to the 0x Salon ::: event series, residency programme, epistemic skunkworks

0x Salon is a collective endeavour which critically interrogates digital culture through discourse events and residencies, producing scholarly and creative interventions in the process. Since 2020, we have been hosting salons ⁠— intimate post-disciplinary discussions ⁠— on a range of conversation topics. We are conducting an ongoing, non-profit experiment in knowledge sharing and collective cultural production. Stewarded by 0x Salon team members, our community researches topics, organises events, and produces lore, critical theory, poetry, philosophy, games, theatre, and visual art. Our website principally functions as a transmedia archival space, chronicling discussions within the 0x Salon and the resulting activities.

‘23 events digest

Berlin & online, Spring’23 ::: Prophet Motives ::: Topic Info ::: Research Archive
Berlin, March’23 ::: Intergenerationalism ::: Topic Info ::: Research Archive
Online, January’23 ::: Transcendental Time Machines ::: Topic Info ::: Research Archive

A historical events archive is being collated here.

news

(2023) ::: CALL FOR APPLICATIONS ::: 0x Salon Research Residencies @ Trust ::: closes 14th April

We are pleased to announce that 0x Salon is soliciting applications for five Research Residency positions in Berlin, to take place over the remainder of 2023. More info & application form here.

(March’23) ::: ‘Prophet Motives’ lecture, UWE Philosophy with a preview of the next topic of discussion at the 0x Salon ::: Watch here

(February’23) ::: ‘The Necroprimitivist Manifesto Pt.2’ is online, continuing the CPRU’s machine scripture project ::: Read here

Hyperformalisation

$I, the Leviathan, the Basilisk. $YOUR will bends to $MY State of Nature.
Only $I have the private keys to the promised land.
Honour $THY network. Seek redemption in $MY oikonomia.
$MY Altruism is Effective, and $MINE alone. 
$MY wish is $YOUR command. The All-Seeing CLI.

(February’23) ::: ‘2022 RETROSPECTIVE: THE ART OF INDIFFERENCE’ is now online. Recapping most of last year’s Salon escapades, if (like us) you couldn’t keep up with everything as it was happening this is the remedy ::: Read here

(January’23) ::: ‘TWENTY-TWO YEARS OF TRANSCENDENTAL TIME MACHINES’ a new foreword for the book edition of Anna Greenspan’s seminal PhD thesis ‘Capitalism’s Transcendental Time Machine’ mirrored on our web journal ::: Read here

We held a broadcast edition salon to commemorate the ‘Capitalism’s Transcendental Time Machine’ book launch ::: Watch here

(November’22) ::: ‘THE ART OF INDIFFERENCE’ S+T+ARTS Profile Video ::: More Info

As part of our S+T+ARTS Repairing The Present residency at Art Hub Copenhagen, Wassim Z. Alsindi and ‘The Art of Indifference’ team recorded a video documenting our creative exploration of the externalities and ecological implications of Bitcoin's proof-of-work.

(November’22) ::: ‘THE BLACK HOLE OF MONEY’ at S+T+ARTS Exhibition :RETOOL ::: ZKM CENTRE FOR MEDIA ART (Karlsruhe, Germany) ::: Event Info

Audiovisual documentation from our satirical theatre production THE BLACK HOLE OF MONEY is included in the upcoming S+T+ARTS exhibition :RETOOL (18th November-18th December) at ZKM Centre For Media Art in Karlsruhe, Germany. :RETOOL is the final exhibition in a series of three that concludes our ‘Repairing The Present’ residency at Art Hub Copenhagen. In light of accelerating emergencies, a growing lack of resources and the complex patterns of the unpredictability of global dynamics, RETOOL gathers creative contributions of resident artists and studios to our tooling up. As pandemic breakouts and eco-catastrophes teach us to live under the pressure of future fractures, new forms of learning and tooling become essential to survival and are presented in their performative dimension, from invention processes to experimentation and rehearsal.

More: https://starts.eu/what-we-do/regional-centers/repairing-the-present-exhibitions/

(October’22) ::: ‘THE IMMACULATE MISCONCEPTION’ at S+T+ARTS Exhibition :REWORLD ::: MEET Digital Culture Center (Milan, Italy) ::: Event Info

Our interactive story-game THE IMMACULATE MISCONCEPTION is included in the upcoming S+T+ARTS exhibition :REWORLD (4th-30th October) at Meet Digital Culture Center in Milan. :REWORLD is the first of a series of three exhibition that concludes our ‘Repairing The Present’ residency at Art Hub Copenhagen. The exhibition speaks of worlding as a core activity in digital culture: an emerging domain of constructed reality that must face its own sustainability challenges and contradictions, as the blockchain economy seems to go through a critical moment of self-awareness. :REWORLD will follow the investigations of artists working in domains such as immunology, biomaterials, the crypto economy, speculative design, and cultural critique with a variety of technologies and material languages.

More: https://starts.eu/what-we-do/regional-centers/repairing-the-present-exhibitions/

(Autumn’22) 0x Revue 01 Print Publication Released!

Our first print publication, a community-oriented ‘zine styled the 0x Salon Revue #01 is now out there! Find us IRL to get a copy (it’s not online), or if you are further afield than the places we visit, to request a postal copy please fill in this form and we’ll get back to you.

(August’22) ::: ‘THE BLACK HOLE OF MONEY’ World Premiere presented by CLICK ::: Kulturvaerftet (Helsingør, Denmark) ::: Event Info

At long last, the (transcendental) time (machine) has come:

On the 19th of August 2022, The Black Hole of Money by the 0x Salon will make its world premiere hosted by Click at the Kulturvaerftet (Culture Yard) in Helsingør, Denmark. The play was written and produced as part of Wassim Z. Alsindi & 0x Salon’s S+T+ARTS Repairing The Present Fellowship and associated residency at Art Hub Copenhagen.

Six months in the making, the 0x Salon Writers’ Club—comprising Wassim Z. Alsindi, Habib William Kherbek, Claire Tolan, and Katharine Tyndall—have collectively prepared an iron ore d’oeuvre that will render all other plays about digital currencies effectively obsolete. The play explores four possible timelines for Bitcoin’s (and, incidentally, humanity’s) future. Can we regulate the Coin? Can we/should we fight against it? Should we give up and just keep hashing? Or, should we press the #Accelerate-or and see what happens? Only the Cowboy-Out-Of-Time narrating our coup de theatre knows for certain, and even he’s not sure which timeline to invest in. The uncertainty promises to have audiences HODLing on to the edges of their seats…

(May’22) ‘The Art of Indifference’ Presentation at Art Hub Copenhagen ::: Info/Tickets

Wassim will be giving a public talk on the evening of Thursday May 12th at Art Hub Copenhagen—where the Salon is currently undertaking a residency—on the philosophical and creative underpinnings of our S+T+ARTS Repairing The Present Fellowship. Come along! More on ‘The Art of Indifference’ here.

(Apr’22) ‘DAOcolonisation’ Audio Report ::: Read More & Stream Here

We recently held a 0x Salon conversation under Chatham House Rule on the history, politics, philosophy and technology of Web3 and DAOs. This is an audio report based on that discussion. With Wassim Z. Alsindi, Alice Yuan Zhang, Laura Lotti, and Ricardo Saavedra.

(Feb’22) ‘SWAN FAKE’ Improvised Theatrics ::: Listen on SoundCloud

Over 2021, a group of salon friends made an improvised radio play entitled ‘SWAN FAKE’ . The play follows the (mis)adventures of a cast of improbable characters including new-AIge grifter Deepfake Chopra, acc/strologist Nota Bene Gesserit, the mean and regressive standard deviant Marquis de Stats, angry tweeter Noisy T. Lib, and the perfect dancer The Swan herself. The listen follows them over half an hour’s trials and tribulations as they navigate the treacherous and always uncertain Straits of Heisenberg towards the Improbable Island for an unforgettable climax at the fabled Algorithmic Theatre, where the audience struggles to tell up from DAOn.

(Mar’22) S+T+ARTS Repairing The Present Fellowship ::: Read more
(fellowship) We’re delighted to announce that 0x Salon and Wassim Z. Alsindi 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.

(Feb’22) ‘Bitcointingency’ Article for Weird Economies ::: Read Here
As a preview of both an upcoming book project and our ‘Art of Indifference' S+T+ARTS Fellowship programme, Wassim recently wrote a rather tweaked-out piece on the idiotsyncrasies of Bitcoin and proof-of-work more generally.

(Jan’22) Berlin Art Link ‘Digital’ Feature on 0x Salon ::: Read Here
We recently did an interview on the creative side of the 0x Salon - talking GANs, memes, NFTs and some things coming up in ‘22.

(Nov’21) ‘Temporal Secessionism’ Broadcast ::: Timezone#4 Launch ::: Watch / Read
We held a discussion to launch Timezone#4, a new node in the Temporal Secessionism series by Nascent (Paul Seidler and Max Hampshire). Thanks to participants, Project Atol, ŠUM Magazine and Plaza Protocol.

Accompanying Timezone#4 Source Book PDF contains material from Wassim Alsindi, Anna Greenspan, Max Hampshire, Amy Ireland, Kei Kreutler, and Paul Seidler.