人文极客的加密技术想象 | Summer of Protocols 慢速回放

图 / 豚

夏天已经行至中途，以太坊基金会发起、GCC 联合赞助，Uncommons 实际执行的 Summer of Protocols 也业已过半。在兜兜转转寻求「技术创新」的当下，我们需要的不仅仅是资本、工程、经手无数的白皮书，也许，只是需要再来一点儿想象。

我们从近百条计划书中选出并支持的「人文极客」（Pill to Incept Lore and Literacy，即 PILL 类目下的十余名华语研究员、独立艺术家与作者），已按时完成了各自的作品，交付了他们自己的想象方式。

👉 了解更多：Open Grants | 人文视角如何切入协议研究？“协议之夏” 2024 再启，最高单项九万美金

在本系列中，我们会介绍这些被资助的作品，及其背后的技术与哲学思考。这些受资助作品的共性是：以「协议」（Protocol）为中心，在这个总是不断失控的去中心化世界，给出每一个对「去中心化之后，控制如何存在」的独立答案。

什么是协议？在创作的全过程中，这是我们收到最多的问题。「去中心化之后，控制如何存在」（how control exists after decentralization）作为 Alexander R. Galloway 以「协议」为标题的一书的副标题，正是最简洁明了的对「协议」的解释。

在这本书中，Galloway 提出了协议作为一种「将复杂现实协作进行结构化的抽象方式」，以区分于彼时互联网童年时代的「网络乌托邦」的畅想 *。

区块链让「下一代互联网」的呼声再次出现，也让新的「网络乌托邦」以种种意识形态复活。但是，「乌托邦」不是答案，所有「黄金世界」都需要新的建材。在此时再次回到「协议」这个关键概念，有助于我们再次审视我们赖以生存的技术及社会协议将带领我们行至何方，如何切实改进，才能抵达真正「可实现的技术乌托邦」。

「代码和自然语言一样可以接受同等的文化与文学分析」。我们相信后者与前者同样重要，代码只是字、词、句，而「协议」是让它真正成为社会语言的篇章。

*阅读 Galloway 此书：https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/5658.001.0001。本书也是 Summer of Protocols 推荐的主要几个书籍类参考资料之一。

本系列概览

在 “Summer of Protocols” 慢速回放系列中，我们会包括以下几个部分：

• Intro to GCC & General PILL Grantee Artifacts（本文）

• Edge City「Protocol Week」, with 0xParc

  • 本部分的亲历者视角也可参考此前 Uncommons 「时差记者」系列文章 @jiang 时差记者 | Edge City：加州阳光，加密公民与理性螺旋

• Punk-Protocol Synthesis & Sketching the Socioimaginational, from Sam Chua’s talk, SoP

• Other cool things about Protocol

在本篇文章中，我们会着重介绍已获得资助的十名华语创作者的 PILL 类作品的概览，并在此后的推送中依次给出独立的详细介绍。

Intro to GCC & General PILL Grantee

Technium Underground: Visualize the EIPs as a Wood-Wide-Web Dashboard

The concept of the “Technium,” coined by Kevin Kelly, embodies technology as a living, evolving organism—a fusion of “technology” and “organism.” Akin to plants, the blockchain is characterized by its proliferation—numerous and diverse, with robust foundational structures yet slender bodies. My proposal suggests a data visualization project likening Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to a mycorrhizal network. This visualization, resembling undulating terrain, will illustrate the evolution of EIPs as nodes rise and fall in response to their interconnectedness within the ecosystem.

On-chain Data Sculpture Exhibition

A series of fictional designs for on-chain data sculptures and future curating protocols. The theme is about finding your own wasteland.

Protocol with Uncommunicables

This program is focused on designing a game to study and explore coordination and protocol creation with entities that are irrational, uncommunicative, and potentially troubling. The game guides players through various scenarios where they use existing protocol templates to navigate non-communicative situations. Through a set of guided options, players are encouraged to draft their own protocols as a way to understand coordination.

Farflora

In this project, I will delve into the Farcaster platform for an art practice in generating NFT artworks, offering a fresh perspective on the synergy between technology and art within the digital economy. My approach integrates generative algorithms and AI prompts that draw from on-chain data, creating a unique “creative protocol” that guides the artistic process. I aim to explore how this protocol influences the uniqueness of each artwork and the overall creative dynamic. Additionally, I will examine the effects of sales protocols, such as issuance methods, pricing strategies, and revenue distribution, on market response and community engagement, as well as consider the role of Farcaster’s token system in shaping creator incentives and economic interactions.

all just fresh-off-the-boat or floating

In the form of a “hybrid ethnographic documentary,” a screen-recording video will explore the path-routes and screen-time of those who are masked, dressed in costumes, and encrypted with switchable codes in the disguise through private tunnels, lurking, indulging, surveilling, participating, and disengaging with multiple IP or wallet addresses. Different threads of narratives will evolve as we weave through these stories between servers and nodes—we are boarding and riding with Virtual Private Network protocols: we’re all fresh-off-the-boat this time. Meanwhile, this video work will begin with reflecting on its own image-making protocols before delving into the study of virtual private network protocols and those alike, for both attempt at moving virtually in illusion and uncanniness. The video will also be experimented with its audiovisual protocols to evolve and iterate live in real-time with the changing virtual and private networks. By the end of the day, the way this video can be viewed will also be played with a layer of encryption. Perhaps only for those who hold the public key, or else…?

Feral Labs

Whether it’s synthetic biology experiments or geoengineering climate technologies, laboratories will become feral. This projects uses 3D software and AI to imagine the fusion of the lab and landscape, and feral protocols of science.

Protocol-Cinema | 协议—影像，或一种基于协议的蒙太奇拼图

A series of cinema based on protocol, both in a general way and technical way, focusing on protocol and poetics, applications(external) and experience(internal), revolving around the internet.

A Pattern Language for Digital Spaces

We increasingly live in digital spaces. Ideal digital spaces build connections and nourish minds, collectively owned and changed by us the inhabitants: a form of space more humane than what we have now.

To collectively explore and summon dreams into reality, we need a common language. A language made of behavior-shaping patterns in the digital space that have proven to work for us, drawn from the short but vast history of the internet.

I will put together a list of patterns, with a similar multi-scale structure as A Pattern Language 7, but using mostly illustrations. The result will be a booklet that serves as the beginning of a pattern language, through which more people can be conscious of how structures in digital spaces shape our minds, and how we can together envision and articulate the digital spaces that truly work for us. 

Yunmiumiu

A postgraduate student majoring in Modern Chinese literature. Love nature and hiking.

A Century-long Dialogue or A Historical Story of “Protocol”

If you are familiar with the history of China in the 1920s and 1930s, you might find it surprising how similar the anarchist and left-wing youth of that time were to today’s “digital nomads.” They shared the ideal of a “decentralized organization” and some other cultural psychology, such as their cosmopolitan view, preference for co-residence, tendency to disconnect from the original community, an age structure dominated by “youth,” and even their open attitude towards relationships and romance.We want to tell a story that transcends time and space, somewhere between a historical and fictional narrative. This story will incorporate historical documents and cases, perhaps using a framework such as time travel, and include pictures, animations, and interactive elements.

Pingzi

Bridge of Protocol 🌈Gender Horizons Interactive Game

A set of interactive cards that illustrate the cognitive differences between various gender groups. These cards will help individuals become aware of these differences, delve into their underlying causes, and foster mutual understanding and respect among different gender groups. By facilitating ongoing dialogue in a harmonious and rhythmic environment, the cards will enable continuous conversations.

* 以上十位创作者将分获 $1,000 的创作奖励和数额在 $500-$1,000 不等的追加奖励（其中基于投票，Guo Liu, Wendiy 及 K 的作品将获得 $1,000 的追加奖励）。Botao Amber Hu 与 Yisi Liu 的双人团队在完成作品后，将获得 $90,000 的协议提升奖励。查看 cohort 详情：https://summerofprotocols.com/sop24-cohort（点击「阅读原文」）

关于 GCC

GCC 的全名是 Global Chinese Community of Universal Digital Commons，GCC 基金是 GCC 旗下的捐赠基金，支持全球数字公共物品发展，捐赠及支持其中的华语建设者。如果你是一名数字公共物品建设者，欢迎移步官网 https://www.gccofficial.org/ 了解我们及申请资助。

Uncommons (previous GreenPill CN) is a public sphere where a collective of Commons Builders explores Crypto Thoughts together. Uncommons is a crypto-humanities brand incubated by PlankerDAO

Uncommons 是区块链世界内一隅公共空间，一群公共物品建设者，在此碰撞加密人文思想。Uncommons 是由普朗克孵化的加密人文品牌，其前身为 GreenPill 中文社区。

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