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Draft:Distributed Gallery

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Logo of the Distributed Gallery

The Distributed Gallery is a French artists' collective that uses distributed technologies, such as blockchain, in its work [1]. The collective explores the intersections of contemporary art, digital technology, decentralized computing and social structures[2][3].

Their main body of work consists of internet art and installations that use protocols based on smart-contract technologies, most often involving the construction of interactive machines[4] connected to the Ethereum Blockchain.

Selected works

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Ready-made token (2017)

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The Ready-Made Token is the inaugural artwork of the Distributed Gallery, created in December 2017. This piece was a single ERC20 (a standard for creating tokens on the Ethereum blockchain) token sold via auction on the Ethereum blockchain and designated by the distributed gallery as a work of art[5]. With this creation, the Distributed Gallery claimed a gesture akin to Marcel Duchamp and Dada by designating a common object, a cryptocurrency, as a work of art[6].

The work is associated with the appropriation art movement, as the Distributed Gallery signed the piece with the name Richard Prince, though this signature was never directly linked to the well-known American artist[7]. The Ready-Made Token has attracted considerable attention[8], underscoring the close relationship between value-production mechanisms in the art world and dynamics of attribution[9].

Chaos Machine (2018)

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Chaos Machine by Distributed Gallery

The Chaos Machine is the second artwork[10] by the Distributed Gallery, created in the summer of 2018[11][12][13]. Chaos Machine is a machine made of oak wood, steel, slate, and glass, measuring 52 x 52 x 192 cm[14]. It exists in two interconnected copies that function as a crypto-jukebox, playing music whenever a banknote is burned[15].

The Chaos Machine operates using a user-generated playlist, recorded on the Ethereum blockchain and permanently stored via IPFS technology[16]. When a banknote is burned, a random track from this playlist is selected and played on both machines regardless of their geographic distance[17]. Therefore, if music is heard from one machine without a banknote being burned in it, it indicates that a banknote has been burned elsewhere on the other machine. Each time a banknote is burned, a cryptocurrency is generated, and a QR code is printed, allowing the user to add a new song to the Chaos Machine’s playlist[18].

Chaos Machine was first exhibited in 2018 at the Schinkel Pavillon as part of an exhibition curated by Simon Denny and was sold in 2022 in London during an auction organized by Phillips (auctionners).[19][20]

One arm crypto bandit (2021)

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One Arm Crypto Bandit by Distributed Gallery

The One Arm Crypto Bandit is the third artwork of the Distributed Gallery created in the summer of 2021.[21]

This piece, made of wood and steel, functions as a physical slot machine where each pull of the lever generates a new pair of Ethereum private and public keys in an attempt to create collision attacks[22]. If, by rare chance, one of these newly generated private keys corresponds to an existing, funded Ethereum address, the machine grants the user immediate access to the associated funds.

[aside] (2024)

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In 2024, the collective developed the [aside] protocol, which allows any NFT on the Ethereum blockchain to be immobilized (illiquid), with its release contingent upon the occurrence of external events verified through blockchain oracles.[23]. These events can include natural phenomena (such as forest growth, fishery levels, earthquakes, or storms), astral occurrences (like solar eruptions or planetary transits), economic indicators (such as inflation or deflation), financial conditions (such as stock market fluctuations), as well as demographic or social factors[24].

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Distributed Gallery Website

[aside] website

References

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  1. ^ "The Distributed Gallery". Kate Vass Galerie.
  2. ^ "Neural, a journal about digital culture and new media art". biblioteca.uoc.edu.
  3. ^ Wong, Ashley Lee (April 19, 2019). "Comment se confronter au marché : les nouveaux médias face au marché de l'art". Marges. Revue d'art contemporain (28): 98–112. doi:10.4000/marges.1845 – via journals.openedition.org.
  4. ^ "Cryptocurrency-Inspired Art at Schinkel". Berlin Art Link. September 25, 2018.
  5. ^ "La crypto-monnaie, valeur montante de l'art contemporain ?". Beaux Arts. February 23, 2018.
  6. ^ "Untangling The "Richard Prince" Blockchain Scam". Artnome. January 6, 2018.
  7. ^ "Interview With The Man Behind the "Richard Prince" Ready-Made Token". Artnome. January 7, 2018.
  8. ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/arts/cryptocurrency-art-market.html
  9. ^ "Blockchain And The Visual Arts - Center for Art Law". itsartlaw.org. February 20, 2018.
  10. ^ https://www.artnet.fr/artistes/the-distributed-gallery/the-chaos-machine-bkEjFbG7_0ymGFmY7jmuWg2
  11. ^ "The Chaos Machine". Phillips.
  12. ^ "THE DISTRIBUTED GALLERY - Lot 128". Aguttes.
  13. ^ B, Hugh (October 23, 2019). "La Chaos Machine propulse l'art contemporain dans l'univers de la blockchain". CryptoActu.
  14. ^ "THE DISTRIBUTED GALLERY The Chaos Machine, 2018 Chêne, a… | Drouot.com". drouot.com.
  15. ^ ""Proof of Work" at Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin — Mousse Magazine and Publishing". www.moussemagazine.it. September 21, 2018.
  16. ^ Piga, Cristina (September 8, 2018). "Neural 60, Blockchain. The Trust Catalyst. | Neural".
  17. ^ "La Chaos Machine, une oeuvre d'art qui brûle des billets contre des tokens".
  18. ^ "Chaos Machine, brûlez des billets pour de la musique". Cryptoast. October 19, 2019.
  19. ^ "Schinkel Pavillon". schinkelpavillon.de.
  20. ^ "The Distributed Gallery - Ex-Machina: A History of Generative Art London Wednesday, July 13, 2022". Phillips.
  21. ^ "One Arm Crypto Bandit Machine - Paris P2P". p2p.paris.
  22. ^ Droitcour, Brian (January 7, 2022). "Celebration and reprobation". Outland.
  23. ^ "The Aesthetic of a Protocol". www.rightclicksave.com.
  24. ^ "[aside]". Verse. October 20, 2024.