项目简介
Blocks /城市区块/ 是一个对未来城市街区历史记忆生成的实验性艺术项目。Blocks /城市区块/将以长沙市潮宗街为建构蓝本，通过运用区块链以及智能合约，建立一个虚拟空间与现实空间不断循环再生的城市记忆生成系统。在该记忆系统中，虚拟记忆图像将被代币化，通过智能合约，回馈到城市记忆再造中，而不断更新的城市记忆与城市街道景观，将被记录下来，循环至虚拟空间的记忆模块中。潮宗街在区块链上的虚拟记忆空间将与物理空间一起，不断更新，形成一个自治的去中心化的城市街道记忆系统，一个富于想象，连贯过去，现在与未来的空间。
Q&A
1.为什么是长沙潮宗街？
因为1938年文夕大火，湖南长沙成为在二战中受损最严重的城市之一。作为一个拥有超过1000年历史的古城，历史的原因让历史痕迹只能以再造地方式在新的城市景观中重现。近年来，城市街区的历史保护工作不断受到人们的重视，许多老的公馆与街道都被更加合理地方式保护下来。许多城市中心的老街区也被整葺一新，变成旅游观光的打卡地。潮宗街也被列为建立长沙城市历史步道的一部分，逐渐有越来越多的商铺，民宿，咖啡店等入驻。这里的城市景观在近100年中不断变化，我们可能很难在现在的街区景观中，追溯这个地方的历史脉络。长沙市潮宗街是一个街区样本，实践重叠的无源头的记忆空间如何在基于Web3.0的互联网空间中以新的方式发展。
2.为什么要建立一个基于区块链与智能合约的历史记忆生成系统？
区块链技术被认为是一个可以改变已有社会结构的具有“破坏性”的技术，是可以去中心化，创造一个更加民主的新的政治,经济与文化空间。然而，在去中心化包装的外表下，是否真的可以解放个体？大卫·哈维曾说过 “ 去中心化是一个将中心化权力保留的最好的方式，因为去中心化将集中的权力掩藏在了个人自由的外表下。[1] 区块链技术在已有的社会体系下表现为一种“异端”，但是正如齐泽克评价NFT中所说的,比特币和NFT有效地实现了在商品与金钱中的已有得潜力,这些新的电子控制不是“异端”不是“解放性的项目”,他们是在现在已有体系下的可控范围内的一种自由的表象。[2]当Web3.0与区块链技术的拥护者么，希望将一切都代币化，创造一个新的社会空间，我们是否需要将一切代币化？我们是否需要将数据都资产化？亚历山大·加洛韦 说到： “ 协议已经越来越和人类的生产力共存，最终成为人类关于这个世界和应该如何生活在这个世界上的最深层次欲望的蓝图。而这使得协议变得十分的危险，因为这种行为固化可以随机发生的和去物质的欲望。”[3]那么我们在面对区块链技术时，实验性的艺术项目是否可以作为一种介入，重新想象这种被认为是 “可以颠覆旧系统” 的技术。
我们曾会使用纪念碑来作为一种对于过去的纪念，用一种更加稳固地方式来将过去锚定在一个时空，一段叙述。但是, 城市记忆是多样的，有个人的，也有公共的；有视觉的，也有声音的触觉的嗅觉的；有历史的故事，也有情绪的表达；有文化的积淀，也有商业空间的渗入；有建筑的凝聚下的回忆，也有流动活动中产生的有过去的连接。城市的记忆不是线性的，多个时空的交织在一起，不是单一维度的，是多元交杂的。我们能够使用区块链技术与智能合约，创造一个罗西·布雷多蒂笔下的游牧主体。不同于詹姆斯-杨所描述的”逆纪念碑”，这是一个以更加积极的态度面对纪念碑式的历史中的问题。
Blocks/城市区块/作为一个试验性的艺术项目.将公共记忆的代币化，不是为了创造一个新的金融产品，这个项目希望可以在虚拟与物理空间的循环中，探索一种对于区块链技术脱离金融化的另一种想象，激发对于公共记忆的再造与生命力，反抗单一记忆叙述，呈现多维的非线性记忆在Web 3.0的赛博空间中的再现。代币化下的记忆空间，不仅仅是记录过去，不是为了建立历史叙述的霸权，而是反馈到城市的再生，探索一种充满生命力的新的空间的可能性。
[1] David Harvey (2014), Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, London: Profile Books, Chapter 10.
[2] https://www.rt.com/op-ed/545405-bitcoin-nft-digital-control/
[3] Alexander Galloway (2004), Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization, Cambridge: MIT Press, p.245.
3.你可以如何参与？
你可以通过加入我们微信与discord社群，了解项目进展，一同构建Blocks/城市区块/的白皮书书写，并且有机会加入重要决定的投票与意见表达。
About the project
/Blocks/ is an experimental art project sketching a generative memory formation in the future. The /Blocks/ aims to build a sustainable self-generative memory system between virtual and physical space, leveraging blockchain technology and smart contract, based on the Chaozong District in Changsha, China. In this system, the virtual memorial image is tokenized with a smart contract, and the benefits can award the urban memory construction. The constantly updated urban memory and cityscape will be recorded and circulated into the modular virtual memory. Chaozong district on blockchain connects virtual memory and physical spaces. It will update constantly and eventually form a self-governed and decentralized urban memory system. It is s space full of imagination, traversing between the past, present, and future.
Q&A
1.Why Chaozong District?
Changsha became one of the most damaged cities during WWII because of the Wenxi Fire of 1938. As a country with more than 1000-year history, the historical traces can only be found through the reconstructed city landscape. In recent years, the preservation of the old district drew much attention from people, and many old mansions and districts are preserved in relatively more proper ways. Many old districts have been renovated, transforming into tourism sites. Chaozong district is part of the historical district of Changsha, and there have been an increasing number of stores, cafés, and B&B in this area. We can barely trace the past chronologically with the changing cityscape in the recent 100 years. Chaozong district is an experimentation site to explore the possibility of dealing with memory in the age of burgeoning Web 3.0 facing the assemblage and rootless memory space.
2.Why establish a memory generating system based on blockchain and smart contracts?
Blockchain technology is always considered a disruptive technology to change the existing social structure. It can create a decentralized and more democratic political, economic, and cultural space. Nevertheless, stripping off the appearance of decentralization, can blockchain liberate individuals? Davide Harvey says: “decentralization is one the best means to preserve highly centralized power because it masks the nature of this centralized power behind a veneer of individual liberty.” Blockchain technology appears as an anomaly in society, but like Zizek’s comment on NFT: “ the two (NFT and bitcoin) effectively actualize a potentiality that is already contained in the very notion of commodity and money.” When Web3.0 and blockchain technology supporters try to tokenize everything to formulate a new social space, we may need to ask: “do we need to tokenize everything? Do we need to put all data into assets? Alexander Galloway says: “Protocol then becomes more and more coextensive with humanity’s productive forces, and ultimately becomes the blueprints for humanity’s innermost desires about the world and how it ought to be lived. This makes Protocol dangerous … because it acts to make concrete our fundamentally contingent and immaterial desires.” Facing the blockchain technology, can we reimagine this so-called “breaking the old system” technology with the intervention of experimental art project?
We used monuments to memorialize the past, stabilizing it in one space and time in one narrative. But urban memory is diverse: It is personal and public; It is visual and haptic; It is about history; It is also an emotional expression. It is cultural and intertwined with commercials; It is concretized in an architectural form and formed in the Fluxus activity. Urban memory is not linear but intertwined with many different spaces and times. It is not one dimension but hybridity. There is a possibility to use blockchain and smart contracts to construct a nomadic subjectivity written by Rosi Braidotti, which is different from James Young’s counter monument. It is a more optimistic perspective encountering the problem of monumental history.
Blocks is an experimental art project. Tokenizing the public memory is not to create another financial asset but intend to explore an alternative of blockchain technology, circulating between the virtual and physical space. This project aims to spark the livelihood of public memory, countering the singular narrative by representing a non-linear memorial space in the Web3.0 cyberspace. Tokenization is not to record the past, not to establish the power of historical narrative, but to form as a power of regeneration, exploring the possibility of the vitality of this new space.
3.How to Participate?
You can join our Wechat and Discord community, keep updates on the project, contribute to the white paper of /Blocks/, and participate in voting for the critical decision and commenting with your opinions.
