Web 3 Are We OK?

Have you been wondering what to make of Web3? Are you curious about the trajectory of the Internet, and the fate of our digital lives? Have you been drawn to the economics of this space as you seek out resources for your work and communities? Perhaps you have concerns about who is able to access such resources in the first place, and who decides what happens in a “decentralized” web. How does blockchain even work? Do we need it?

Over the past year, artists and activists gathered together as existing friends and community-based cultural workers to think about this current moment of technology together and plan some sort of collective response. Through our routine check-ins and meet-ups, we realized how much we appreciate simply having a space for each other to exchange honest questions, learnings, and emotions about what’s happening in the frenzied development of Web3. We find it grounding to navigate this topic area with vulnerability, and recognize our own needs and desires for technology along the way.

In this particular iteration of Web 3, we will be using New Art City's digital 3D tools to spontaneously co-create a 3D zine inspired by our past and on-going Web 3 Are We OK conversations/feelings/spirals. Current facilitators in this ongoing series include JAZSALYN, Marcus Brittain Fleming, Alice Yuan Zhang, Kola Heyward-Rotimi, Liz Mputu.

Funds available for this event were gathered through Marcus’ involvement in the Stacks Foundation, a cryptocurrency built on Bitcoin. Marcus was awarded $15,000 to create an NFT project for this organization. Half of these funds (post-tax) will be used to fund this event and others like it, critical research about Web3, and psychotherapy funding for low-income tech workers. Often there lacks funding for critical discourse in tech, only for building and proliferating toward an industry agenda. Worse yet, any objections are often dismissed as “fear, uncertainty and doubt” (FUD). So, this is Marcus’s way to siphon space for developing mutual support on our own terms!

This space is a murky, foggy endless plain in all directions. The space reflects how many of us feel about the currents state of Web 3; lost, scared, worried, confused, and trapped in the undertow of another "new" internet. This open space centers the participants, and our feelings, as the most important aspects of the terrain.