Image: Anna-Luise Lorenz, text: Habib William Kherbek
THE IMMACULATE MISCONCEPTION is an interactive storytelling environment inspired by pre-internet gamebooks. Participants make a series of policy decisions over time as Bitcoin proliferates and global sea levels rise: acceleration of the quest for limitless energy, attempts to exile Bitcoin off-planet, conducting an insurrection, or acquiescence to the new machine god. The game interrogates the environmental implications of cryptocurrencies, charting speculative futures that probe tensions between capital and ecology in the contemporary global regime dominated by scarcity economics. The work unfolds as a fictional narrative, where formerly ‘failed’ states make Bitcoin their official currency, as volcano-powered energy makes them the richest nations on Earth, and eco-conscious activists start rising up against mining farms.
Image: Anna-Luise Lorenz, text: Claire Tolan
THE IMMACULATE MISCONCEPTION was part of a two-fold project developed within the framework of the European Commission’s S+T+ARTS Repairing the Present residencies, hosted by Art Hub Copenhagen. The aim of Repairing The Present’s ‘Blockchain Society’ theme was to explore the promises and potentials of blockchain from the point of view of their symbolic and systemic aspects, including their consequences for representation and contemporary systems of knowledge and power.
The 0xSalon is a collaborative endeavour which critically interrogates digital culture through discourse events and residencies, producing scholarly and creative interventions in the process. We are conducting an ongoing, non-profit experiment in knowledge sharing and collective cultural production. Stewarded by 0xSalon team members, our community researches topics, organises events, and authors lore, critical theory, poetry, philosophy, games, theatre, and visual art.
The 0xSalon Team for this exhibition comprises Wassim Z. Alsindi, Habib William Kherbek, Anna-Luise Lorenz, Claire Tolan, Katharine Tyndall & Beth von Undall.
Credits Concept & creative direction – Wassim Z. Alsindi Interactive design, visual storytelling & art direction – Anna-Luise Lorenz Game Development – Anna-Luise Lorenz Storyline, Characters, Text – Wassim Z. Alsindi, Habib William Kherbek, Claire Tolan, Katharine Tyndall Game Animation – Anna-Luise Lorenz $HASHY animation – Beth von Undall & Anna-Luise Lorenz Music – Wassim Z. Alsindi as Essential Abstractions Production – 0xSalon Coding Support – Alican Karalar
0xSalon The 0xSalon is a collaborative endeavour which critically interrogates digital culture through discourse events and residencies, producing scholarly and creative interventions in the process. We are conducting an ongoing, non-profit experiment in knowledge sharing and collective cultural production. Stewarded by 0xSalon team members, our community researches topics, organises events, and authors lore, critical theory, poetry, philosophy, games, theatre, and visual art. https://0xsalon.pubpub.org/
Anna-Luise Lorenz Anna-Luise Lorenz is a multidisciplinary designer, artist, researcher and educator based in Berlin. Her research-based work explores the corrupting forces of reality which find expression in the anomalies of empiricism and rationalism: the weird, the absurd, or the enigmatic processes within biological and technological systems. Through a wide range of media such as installation, performance, animation and fictional short stories, Anna explores human and non-human agents as a pivotal point for the emergence of new hybrid beings and accidental or deliberate non-human design practices to recognise possible worlds which are not there yet. Her work has been shown internationally, amongst others, at MEET Digital Culture Center Milan (IT), Futurium Museum Berlin (GER), the Design Biennial Ljubljana (SLO), Crosstalk International Video Art Festival (HU), the Venice Biennial of Architecture (IT), and USC Cinematic Arts (USA). Anna is lecturing at several universities and is an editorial board member of continent. https://annaluiselorenz.com/
Beth von Undall Beth von Undall is a Berlin-based artist and game-maker. Their work takes form as interactive installations and game-like experiences with a focus on the conditions of technological acceleration and questions of meaning making. https://www.instagram.com/spleeding/
Claire Tolan Claire Tolan has worked primarily with ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) since 2013. Her work is concerned with the phenomenology and poetics of whispered speech, with a particular focus on rumour, secrets, and enthralldom. Tolan hosted an ASMR radio show, “You’re Worth It”, on Berlin Community Radio from 2013-2019. She has exhibited, performed, and presented her work at venues such as Martin Gropius Bau, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berghain, Volksbuehne, CTM Festival, Mira Festival, Rokolectiv Festival, Münchner Kammerspiele, Goethe-Institut London, ArkDes, and Sonar+D. She is currently developing a whispering AI voice companion, undertaking several large-scale writing projects, and working as a strategist and technology researcher.
Habib William Kherbek Habib William Kherbek is an author, art critic, and musician. His writing engages with technology through satire, poetry and prose. Kherbek is the writer of the novels Ecology of Secrets (Arcadia Missa, 2013) and ULTRALIFE (Arcadia Missa, 2016), New Adventures (left gallery, 2020), and Best Practices (Moist Books, 2021). His writing has appeared in the award-winning Block Magazine, Tank Magazine, Rhizome.org, Berlin Art Link, MAP, Flash Art, Spike Magazine, Sleek, Samizdat, AQNB, and a number of other publications. His Ph.D. is from the University of London, Birkbeck. Kherbek produces music under the name dirtagnan, and oversees a subscription-only fashion project entitled HabibWear. https://left.gallery/habib-william-kherbek
Katharine Tyndall Katharine Tyndall is a researcher, artist, and writer working in Berlin. Her research activities are centered around social-ecological systems and conservation. She has published work in major research journals and presented at conferences internationally. Her creative work is often inspired by (or a response to) her professional efforts, and often deal with climate change, science-fiction, scales of ecology, and soil. Her artistic practice involves memes, story-writing, scenarios, physical installations and interactive formats. https://www.instagram.com/xanthropocene/
Wassim Z. Alsindi Wassim is the founder and creative director of the 0xSalon, which conducts experiments in post-disciplinary collective knowledge practices. Wassim specialises in conceptual design and philosophy of peer-to-peer systems, on which he writes, speaks, teaches, and consults. He has an editorial column at the MIT Computational Law Report, and he co-founded MIT’s Cryptoeconomic Systems journal and conference series. Wassim has curated arts festivals, led a sculptural engineering laboratory and published experimental music, satirical theatre, poetry, fiction, games and speculative scripture. Wassim holds a Ph.D. in ultrafast supramolecular photophysics from the University of Nottingham. https://wassim.pubpub.org/
