Proof of Stake - Technological Claims

The Kunstverein in Hamburg is delighted to present the group exhibition Proof of Stake – Technological Claims. We cordially invite you to our opening on September 3 at 7pm.

Proof of Stake – Technological Claims          
A group show from and with Simon Denny & Collaborators

Participating artists: Robert Alice, Mel Chin, Joshua Citarella, Simon Denny, Fang Di, Stephanie Dinkins, Disnovation, Sarah Friend, Isa Genzken, Femke Herregraven, Mike Kelley, Josh Kline, Paul Kolling, Agnieszka Kurant, James Luna, Karamia Müller, New Red Order (NRO-Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, and Jackson Polys), Yuri Pattison, Timur Si-Qin, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Krista Belle Stewart, Paul Thek, Prateek Vjian, Luke Willis Thompson, Beecoin, ein Kooperationsprojekt zwischen The Hiveeyes Project (Clemens Gruber, Karsten Harazim), und Nascent (Max Hampshire, Paul Seidler), Moabees (Bärbel Rothaar, Elisa Dierson, Katja Marie Voigt) und KUNSTrePUBLIK (Harry Sachs, Matthias Einhoff, Philip Horst)

The exhibition Proof of Stake – Technological Claims reflects on the themes of technology, organization, and ownership to investigate how objects are framed as technological and are used to organize life. The exhibition is named after an ownership-based blockchain protocol which has increased in visibility after competing systems were criticized for incentivizing high-energy consumption. The Proof of Stake protocol simply implies that a person can mine or validate transactions according to how many coins they hold, meaning that the more currency owned by a miner, the more power they have. Proof of Stake questions how the framing of processes or objects as “technological” performs cultural work, how they become embedded in our institutions, our social lives, and our thinking—from blockchain protocols to museum reification practices—from blockchain protocols to museum reification practices—by showing several artworks, technical objects, and special commissions from the fields of both art and technology. It foregrounds the question of who has claim on the technical, a question that is often accompanied by a legitimacy or naturalization of what could otherwise be read as part of the political processes surrounding ownership and power. 

The first publication associated with the project, Media Organize: A Companion to Technological Objects assembles 39 inquiries into the organizational powers of everyday media. Written by students from the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and of Culture & Organization and Media and Digital Cultures at Leuphana University Lüneburg. This will be followed by the forthcoming exhibition catalogue Proof of Stake: Technological Claims - a book of organizational objects featuring texts from scholars responding to a chosen technological object.

Curated by Simon Denny and Bettina Steinbrügge.

In cooperation with Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Museum am Rothenbaum / Kulturen und Künste der Welt and University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK). 

Symposium: Proof of Stake
September 4, 2021, 2–5:30pm
2pm: Introduction – Robin Holt (Copenhagen Business School), Timon Beyes, Claus Pias (Leuphana University Lüneburg) 
2:15pm: Artist panel
3pm: Geert Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam) 
3:30pm: Ute Holl (University of Basel) 
4pm: Bettina Vismann (Architect, Berlin) 
4:30pm: Nishant Shah (ArtEZ University of the Arts, NL) 
5pm Clare Birchall, (King’s College London) 
5:30pm Book launch: Media Organize. A Companion to Technological Objects with Students from HFBK Hamburg & Leuphana University Lüneburg