I Saw the Blockchain At the End of the World, Turned Around, and Walked Back

A mysterious and controversial technology is among us: the blockchain. Constructed by unicorns piecing together the necessary building blocks of code, cryptography and incentives, it can lead humankind to Utopia, or to the Final Solution – the End. If it’s true that “It Is Easier To Imagine The End Of The World Than The End Of Capitalism,” as a popular bumper sticker warns, the artist Jaya Klara Brekke, currently pursuing a PhD on the political geographies of blockchain infrastructures, invites us to come back from elsewhere in the future to stay here and now, and not to fear indeterminacy. Written on the occasion of the New World Order group exhibition curated by Ruth Catlow & Marc Garrett / Furtherfield, this homage to the here and now reminds us that we are the ones who are building the future, maybe one automated and run by AI, but we will never be able to predict it.